I've slowly dropped 100 pounds over the last 3 years (50 more to go) and I literally eat whatever I want. The secret is in moderation, which is the real problem with food. It is VERY easy to overeat. I live by 3 simple and easy rules:

• Stop all sugary drinks, or juices. As a doctor said to me: Don't get your calories from juice, eat the whole orange. And NEVER drink full sugar soda. Today, I drink Coke Zero Sugar (0 calories) when I'm in a fast food place, but other than that, it's only unsweetened Ice Tea, or my favorite beverage Ice Water. I have also been drinking those fruit flavored seltzer waters with 0 calories. My only real beverage indulgence is a single beer with dinner 3 or 4 nights a week. Cultivate a love for Ice Water.

• Eat only when you are hungry, and only until you aren't hungry any more. I have found that I really don't need a whole sandwich, I am satisfied after a half of a sandwich. I'm generally satisfied with a couple of small handfuls of chips, I don't need to eat the entire bag. It takes a period of close monitoring to reset your satisfaction levels, but once you do, you are living a new food lifestyle that feels normal. It now feels strange to eat an entire sandwich. Or have a favorite food binge until you are stuffed.

• Don't eat out of boredom, find another activity. This is a really important one. If you find yourself staring into the fridge for a snack, and having trouble deciding, you're not really hungry, you're eating out of boredom. My Dad quit smoking by picking up a Rubik's Cube whenever he got the urge, and it worked well because a big part of smoking are the hand-mouth habits that you develop. Quitters often say that those hand-mouth habits last long after the nicotine cravings have left.

Food shares that trait. Creating a late night mini-charcuterie tray, spreading cheese on a cracker, washing it down with a beer or wine, etc. are all hand-mouth activities that can become regular habits that help load in tons of useless calories just before bed.

I used the guitar as my distraction. I keep an acoustic next to my TV chair, and pick it up whenever I have a craving for food. It distracts me from my momentary craving, and I've advanced to an intermediate ability on the guitar.

Replacing one negative endorphin releasing activity with a positive endorphin activity is highly effective at changing habitual behavior. Exchange a bad habit for a good one. Learn a language, write a book, play a game, play with a pet, lift weights, do a Rubik's Cube, etc. whatever works for you.

Losing weight always requires a lifestyle change, and most people choose a temporary strict diet to do it, but it never works. The lifestyle change needs to be permanent, but nobody wants to go full keto, and never eat pizza or chocolate chip cookies ever again for the rest of their lives. It is nearly inevitable that anyone will fail that sort of diet.

Since you are committing to a lifestyle change, make it simple and effective, allows you the opportunity for guilt-free indulgence, and make it PERMANENT. Want some chocolate? Don't eat an entire chocolate bar, eat a few chocolate chips, let them melt in your mouth and coat your tongue, and it will satisfy your chocolate cravings with a fraction of the calories.

Of course, if you want to supercharge your weight loss, start exercising, especially cardio. I have a physically intensive job, so I don't worry about the exercise as much, but I am about to start running again, after getting the clearance from my doctor. I just got my new runners yesterday, and I'm going to add that to my efforts to lose my last 50 pounds.

Exercise could be my 4th rule, but I wanted to demonstrate that it is possible to lose a LOT of weight with a simple lifestyle change that doesn't include exercise (although exercise is always welcome). I've lost 100 pounds while eating anything I want, and learned to play the guitar at the same time. That's a food lifestyle that's worth the effort.