Have you been on a diet before?
Yes. My wife and I went on one together about 20 years ago.
Was it a recognised diet like Weight Watchers or Slimming World?
It was a syatem called "Metabolic Weight Loss."
How was the diet for you?
Very inconvenient. We both had very busy lives at that time, and a lot of our eating was away from home. With Metabolic, you had to sit down at a specific time and eat the meal the way it was set up. That meant a salad, main course, side course and an occasional dessert. We had to eat their meals prepared to their specific instructions, and even at specified times. Whatever we were doing, at mealtime, we had to stop, prepare our food, and eat.
Was it successful?
We both lost weight down to Metabolic's arbitrary magic number, so I suppose that you could call it successful on the short term. Our life schedule, however, didn't change. They couldn't, given our chosen careers. So it basically came down to a choice between keeping our weight down of paying our bills. I think you all know what we chose.
Any advice for me?
If you're overweight and want to lose, the only way that you can effectively do it is to permanently change your lifestyle. That means probably eating more at regular meals than you might be accustomed to, but NO in between meal snacks, no rewarding yourself for a job well done by going out for a 16 oz steak, fries, and cheesecake for dessert, then a large tub of popcorn with extra butter at the movies. You eat grapes instead of Raspberry Zingers, an apple instead of a Hershey Bar, and drink water instead of Dr Pepper, Coke, or whatever your favorite soft drink is. You have to get out of the house and walk instead of sitting in front of the TV watching "Burn Notice." And you've got to do that for the rest of your life. Plan on that, and you can lose weight and keep it off.
(And you'll only occasionally wake up in the middle of the night, soaked in sweat, from a dream about a large chocolate milkshake with whipped cream and a huge cherry on top)