Changing my diet never worked for me. Counting calories does. Also: I do love pasta.

Counting calories is not that hard. I can do it in my head by now. Tracking my weight (which, I think, is equally important, especially for motivation) is more or less a reward and not a chore by now.

There is also some research that suggests fasting being beneficial in modulating insulin resistance. I try not to consume food after a certain time at night. It is not too difficult to do, and definitely stops short any thoughts of a late night snack.

I'm very skeptical that fasting is healthy, it probably is not. The only thing I do care about is losing weight and that works.

Read up. Fasting can be quite healthy. (The only actual debate is on how good it is for you, not on how bad.) Especially intermittent fasting.

Good on you, but it's a sad fact that lots of folks just can't keep things in check.

As someone who does not get food cravings and does not have blood sugar regulation issues, it's hard for me to understand, but the only way some folks can manage to eat less is by banning certain foods from their life.

Well, for a lot of people giving up bread and pasta is a lot harder than counting calories. Never mind the fact that there's an awful lot of "bro science" in the no/low/slow-carb crowd.

That definitely worked for me. I adopted the paleo lifestyle more than 2 years ago. Although I was never obese, just overweight, now I weight about 20 pounds less than when I started. My blood lipid levels were also corrected.

I used to eat rice, pasta, potatoes, and bread all the time. I only miss the bread, but I make exceptions when I go to a restaurant and they have a really good bread.

Not necessarily. I went from counting calories on a sheet of paper to mentally keeping track of balances in my caloric regiment and keeping track of my weight everyday.

Perhaps it's a diet of coffee/cigarettes (appetite suppressants) that made me go from 200 lbs to 172 in a year but oh well.