There is a lot of complete nonsense in some posts on this thread.
You can not lose 4 or 5 lbs of fat a day by sleeping more. You have to eat way too many calories to be putting weight on regularly. Everyone who is overweight can lose weight.
You need to use up between 3200 and 4000 calories more than you consume (depending on your metabolism and that includes health conditions). You might lose water quite quickly after a period or as you start to lose fat. However, to lose fat the numbers above are what has to happen.
The fatter you are the easier weight loss should be because a heavy body uses up more calories just to exist- breath, move around, pump blood round the body. The fatter you are the more you have to eat to gain weight- for the same reason.
The truth is (and I say this as someone who has been 17 1/2 stone) fat people eat more and are less active - although they may well deny that.
Perhaps what the government should do is stop the manufacturing in this country and the import of high fat cheap foods stuffed with transfats, palm oils, sugar, etc. They could introduce limits on the amounts of fat, sugars and salt in foods.
I would have loved to go to a gym class or an exercise class or swimming but felt huge. What about a designated time/space for classes for the obese?
Having said that the responsibility for being fat and eating too much is your own- no point in blaming anyone or anything else.
The big question is why do we over-eat and lead such sedentary lives? We know it is bad for us. Our relationships with food are complex and linked to our emotions and what has happened in our lives. Unless we can understand and address those issues we will struggle to tackle weight issues with any long-term success.
Calories consumed (eaten) minus calories used up (just daily body functions+ used up in exercise)= weight loss or gain or maintain.
It is that simple.
You can fiddle round the edges with what you consume as carbs, proteins and fats but it is basically and energy calculation. Bodies don't create calories- we eat them.
My weight has been up and down over my whole life but has been under much better control since I was about 32. Partly vanity and wanting to look at least reasonable in clothes, partly exercise, partly just feeling I have a bit more control. I put more weight on with DS2 - 10 m- but have lost it all and more now by eating about 1400 calories and walking lots.
The last few weeks I have really tracked every bit of food and drink and exercise and it has come off really quickly- I had slipped into not being as careful. I'm not a martyr to it- have an occasional treat but just walk a bit more or cut down a bit the next day.
It isn't rocket science, it isn't a faddy diet, no meal replacements. I try to eat the things that are lower in calories because I can have more of those. 3 meals a day. Drink lots of water. Upping my steps to 20,000 5 or 6 days a week has made a really big difference.