As a retired Chef, I can say that most of you posting to this thread are trapped in what I would call the fat, sugar, preservatives cycle of weight gain. These are the three things most Americans fall for the most. It happens because the food industry in the US has used science to cause you to want more of these three things in your diet because like Nicotine, they are addictive to most people. In culinary schools, cooks are taught that fat and sugar sells better than salt and sour so most foods in restaurants are loaded with these two ingredients. But here is my personal observation: the real culprit in weight gain for most Americans, and indeed most humans has become the preservatives we eat even in so called "fresh" vegetables available in the US. All those beautiful fruits and veges you buy in super markets have been drenched in preservatives to keep them looking good longer. Every bag of chips is laden with preservatives, as is every carton of icecream, etc. etc. The list, as you must realize is endless. Salad bars in restaurants have become major sources of preservatives.
Now, a brief story that happens to be true: I was once 285lbs., because as a chef, I was tempted constantly to sample everything going out of the kitchen, plus I was eating my regular meals. I don't really drink, and have never smoked, so neither of those addictions are relavant in my case. I'm 6' 4", and all that weight was killing me. I had no time to exercise, so I began a serious diet, and after 18 months of struggle, I had dropped 40lbs., then stopped losing, no matter what I tried to get through that plateau. My partner and I retired that year, and decided to leave the US to live in Colombia, South America, because the economics of living on Social Security in the US and maintaining our lifestyle looked impossible.
Once in Bogotá, we discovered there was a different way of eating. Colombia doesn't use preserved foods at all. Vegetables from the farmer's market where we shop are as they come from the fields. Canned foods are scarce, and expensive, because most are imported. To the point: I began to lose weight dramatically. The only difference in my food intake, has been the absence of preservatives. I still eat all the fat and sugar I want, but now I'm down to what doctors tell me is my normal weight for a man my size which is 200 lbs., I have to say that I believe it is the addiction to preservatives that caused me to gain up to 285lbs. in the first place.
The solution, and I know it will be difficult in the US, is to do as much as possible to eliminate preservatives from you foods. I believe you will lose weight without trying so hard.
Really wash the vegetables well before cooking them. Try to select meats, fish, and fowl, that are organic if you can, and check the packaging for additives. Avoid snack foods if possible because they are very loaded with presrvatives for a long shelf life.
Then ask these questions: Why isn't there a movement in the Food and Drug Administration to reduce or remove preservatives from our foods? Could it be because the food industry is a major lobby in Washington? Why does it sometimes take months for "fresh" vegetables to reach the supermarket from the farmer's fields with total loss of nutrition value? Why does an apple have no seeds? (The answer to that is because it was picked whle still immature and green and kept in cold storage and preservatives for years until its time came for distribution when it was bathed in gasses that caused it to turn red and pleasing to the eye so you would buy it. Remember Alladar, and how it poisoned people. It was the apple preservative of choice.) The food industry is the problem, not your metbolisms.
I was a chef in Restaurants in Kansas City, and Los Angeles until I retired.
Good luck
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