Sorry I haven't got a lot of time so couldn't read all the posts.
As someone who lost 3st+, my main change to diet was bigger quantities at meal times to stop me snacking in between meals. I also eat my main evening meal earlier, generally before 6pm.
My weight has been steady at around 8.5 stone for several years now (except when pregnant!).
I a typical day I drink about 5 cups of tea or coffee, 4 or 5 glasses of water or squash, 1 glass of juice and sometimes wine in the evening.
Food is typically like this:
Breakfast: 2 slices of toast with marmalade or cornflakes with muesli (large bowl). Banana
Mid-morning: biscuit
Lunch: Large roll with ham, salad and mayonnaise.
Bag of crisps. Apple
Mid-afternoon: couple of biscuits of something like a muesli bar. Often don't eat between lunch and tea.
Tea: Frequently a pasta-based dish, or something like sausage casserole served with potatoes.
Usually yogurt or icecream.
Evening: Bar of chocolate/crisps/fruit (one of these, not usually all, but am right now munching my way through a family sized bag of Revels
Don't do anything about the problem of eating out, just undo a button!
HTH