...I am happy to get the feedback. I am interested in getting your input about diet....
I essentially follow a High-Carb Low(ish) Fat diet built around potatoes (but not only).
I combine this with daily IF (I have no breakfast, eat at a 12:30 - 13:00 lunch and then dinner at about 19:30).
The potatoes fill me up, I genuinely am almost never hungry.
In fact, I started cooking all sorts of casseroles and porridges (with beans, lentils, grains as well as some other vegetables for taste) because I found it difficult to eat enough potatoes to go over 1000-1200 kcal per day.
I do not eat sugar, bread or pasta and I eat very little rice (and not by itself). I do not eat any pre-cooked food, and do not use processed ingredients, I cook everything from basic ingredients (mostly vegetable matter now but I'm not a vegetarian).
One day (sometimes 2 days) in the weekend I eat meat or fish, some butter, generally higher fat but even then I do not binge. I even have some desert (moderately, not like in the past when I ate a tub of ice cream by myself).
I do some exercise (body-weight only) not to burn calories or to put on muscles but rather to try to preserve as much muscle as possible while losing weight (thus hopefully losing fat). On the days when I exercise (2 or 3 days per week) I also have some eggs, yogurt and maybe some cheese just after the workout. The other week days is just potato and other plant food.
If interested in these things, my average daily kcal is 1,400 (this includes the weekend higher intake) and my average caloric intake percentage is approx. 15% Prot, 60% Carb, 25% Fat.
I log my food intake and weight daily and it helps to keep me motivated. I do need help with staying on the diet as there are many opportunities for me to eat sweets, biscuits, cakes, etc. almost every day.
I drink black coffee (2-3 a day) and water, sometimes green tea (once every 2 days or so). The rest, water.
It helps that I can eat monotonously for days at a time.
This way of eating is so simple, I don't have to think much about it and that removes some of the stress.
So far I've lost about 0.5kg per week for the first 2 weeks and then 1kg per week for the last 5 weeks. It cannot last, I know, but I'll keep it going as long as I can.
The moment I stall for 2 weeks I'm going to try 5 days of FMD (Fast Mimicking Diet) to see how that works for me.
I realize that most people go for Low Carb and I did the same in the past and that worked for me to some extent so I cannot say it was bad.
It's just that this year I decided to experiment with this HCLF-Potato based model as I could see no downsides and so far it has exceeded my most optimistic expectations.
As for obesity being in the mind, I believe that probably a big part of it is in the mind but I also think that the mind is not quite as in control as it likes to believe.
Hormones, habit, smells, memories, micro-nutrient deficiencies, advertising, peer pressure, stress, etc. all influence decision making to some extent.
It's not impossible to reverse obesity but it is very hard.
It has to be, otherwise nobody would be obese, I think the great majority of obese people do not want to be fat.
Anyway, sorry for the overlong post Alphamale and good luck with whichever diet you choose.