It's amazing how we've all been led up the garden path over fat in our diets.

Before we went fat-free mad and replaced fat with carbs and sugar most people were slim.
Then a dubious report was published about fat clogging up our arteries and the world took note and ditched the fat for sugar and carbs.
We only have to look around at people to see the disaster that advice has been, and now the tests that advice were based on are under the cosh.
Of course the greatest danger to eating too many carbs and sugar is diabetes. It's no wonder everyone is getting it.
There are now studies showing that carbs and sugar are responsible for bad cholesterol and not fat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL5-9ZxamXc

About 24 minutes in, although I suggest anyone interested listens to the whole lecture.

According to that and many others like it, sugar and carbohydrates are the real dangers to health not fat.

Short-term weight loss is easy. Thousands of diets work well in the first year. Low-fat, high-fat, low-carb, grapefruit, M&M etc. Long-term weight loss is hard or even very hard. Stupid thing is that almost all scientific studies are short-term. Almost none of them have a duration of more than 18 months, so are completely pointless. Any professor who conducts a weight-loss study with a duration of less than 36 months should lose his/her academic title imo.

Anyway, happy to share with you how I have achieved long-term weight-loss... The thing which some of you might find annoying is that it was completely unintentional. I've never tried to lose weight. Once upon a time, more than 10 years ago, I had a BMI of 25 (borderline overweight). Now I have a BMI of 19 (borderline underweight). It appears there are no health benefits whatsoever for going from a BMI of 25 to 19, but it's nevertheless a quite substantial weight-loss.

Change#1: I stopped drinking sweet drinks (including fruit juice and artficially sweetened drinks, which are just as bad), and eating candy. I did this for dental reasons, not because I wanted to lose weight. It did however result in a substantial weight-loss, and that weight has stayed off ever since.

Change#2: A couple of years later I went vegetarian. Then I lost a bit more weight, and that weight has also stayed off.

Note that both changes I made have been permament, at least so far. I still don't drink sweet drinks, eat candy or animals. Everyone knows that sweet drinks including artificially sweetened drinks are associated with obesity right? So not much to say about that. On average vegetarians weigh a bit less than omnivores (and vegans even less), so maybe not surprising that I lost a bit weight when I gave up meat as well. A few things to note about my vegetarian diet: It's high in fiber (fruit, vegetables, legumes), and out of necessity I do much more cooking from scratch than what I did before. Eating lots of fiber is associated with lower body-weight, and lots of cooking from scratch means less highly processed crap, and you don't necessarily have to give up meat to make those changes. (In the unlikely event that I convince someone to go vegetarian - make sure you don't become deficient in vitamin B12! That happened to me, but it was discovered in a blood test before I noticed any seriously bad effects.)

Personally I think you should think about permanent healthy lifestyle changes that you can stick with if you want long-term results. Sad that there's so much conflicting advice about what's healthy. (Maybe take a look at what they eat in places where obesity isn't a big problem?) Better with small changes you can stick with than drastic changes that you find intolerable in the long run.

I wish you long-term success Zorro, and everyone else who is trying to lose weight!

ufcdan, well done.

You'd better believe what you did was correct, and that carbs and sugar are the killers as far as diabetes is concerned.

Remember insulin resistance is what Stage 2 diabetes is all about.
Diabetics have to produce more and more insulin because it isn't doing its job and the blood sugar remains high.
Simply giving patients medication to bring down blood sugar simply makes the condition worse if they continue eating carbs and sugar.
Which can lead to full blown Stage 1 diabetes.

Fat does not trigger insulin. Yes that is correct, eat as much as you like.

So simply cut out the carbs and sugar and your blood sugar count comes down.

Why isn't this information given out by GPs?

So simply cut out the carbs and sugar and your blood sugar count comes down.

And as far as this thread is concerned - your weight will come tumbling down as well.

I'm making lamb curry with potatos and cauliflower. 2 of my favourite vegetables. That's about all you need to know. Cook stuff you like.

Also, portion size.

Hardly hear anything about it.

Well, I just had smoked haddock a few small potatoes and some frozen veg.  Did I enjoy it?  Not the veg.

A bit peckish again now but tomorrow is another day.

I am all for Al Dente.

Got all his albums.

Losing weight is a mental challenge.  The physical solution is simple.  Eat a better diet (more protein, fruit and veg, less sugar, fat and carbs) and exercise more.

I'd advise trying ostrich fillet.  It's expensive at £20 a kilo, but it's only 2% fat and super filling.  After a nice steak it's my second favourite meat.  It's particularly nice with fries, but you can just cook it with onions and salad and swerve the fries.  You'll be amazed how filling it is and there is no waste, so even though it's expensive you don't need that much.

because the leaner the cut of meat the more weight you will lose / the less weight you will gain.

I've dug a video out that explains it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Z9ObBmRxE