BTW, @thenewaveragebear1983, I am aware I have somewhat diverted your thread into talking about sugar addiction, when your primary concern, based on where you have posted, seems to be about your inability to get your weight to where you want and keep it there.
So I’ll tell you a couple of things about myself, and then I’ll leave you alone.
I was an overweight child and an obese teenager, and crossed over into morbid obesity in my mid twenties. I have remained morbidly obese the vast majority of the time since then, until I hit 60. I dieted many times, of course, losing no weight, some weight, a lot of weight, or a shedload of weight at different times. I always then regained weight rapidly, because of massive eating binges. I ate everything, but my drug of first choice was and is sugar.
In my early thirties I had a moment of revelation. Until that point I had thought the problem was my weight. I thought my weight was a temporary problem, which I could fix, and then I’d be fine. But after yet another regain cycle, I realised that the problem was my eating. The way I ate was simply not normal. I knew that, accepted it, stopped dieting, and started trying to address my eating patterns. I viewed it as a psychological/emotional issue, so I tried therapy, counselling, hypnotherapy, mindful eating, intuitive eating - anything which would change the way I thought, and therefore acted, around food. Everything worked for a while. Nothing worked long term. And I had long periods of giving up and giving in.
My current phase of weight change started 2 years ago, triggered by some bad blood results and a prescription for yet another diabetes drug. I decided to try AGAIN, and started transitioning to a low carb, real food eating style, then added intermittent fasting. The fasting programme I joined included psychological coaching and I benefited hugely from that. For example, my mindset around holidays and parties shifted. They stopped being reasons why I “had to” eat a lot of food, or specific foods (read: cake. All the cake). They became occasions which were about enjoying the company of the people I was with - and I can do that perfectly well with a cup of tea in my hand.
But even with all that information and support on board, I still returned to bingeing. Truth be told, I never entirely stopped. But the frequency increased again, and after 16 months of losing I started to regain. By that point I had learned about the addictive nature and sugar and accepted I am an addict. My inability to stop and stay stopped, combined with the regain, was what propelled me to Overeaters Anonymous.
Now I have been abstinent from binge eating, from sugar and certain other trigger foods, for over 6 months. I lost much of the regain, but my weight seems to have stabilised. I am still, despite some people’s comments, clearly still overweight. And I would like to be slimmer. But I have come to the conclusion that, for me (not necessarily for anyone else), the ability to abstain from compulsive eating is more important than what the scale says. I am still overweight/borderline obese. But I am something like 8 stone below my peak weight, and for the first time in my life my weight is not up and down like a yoyo, and day after day I am eating in a sane and normal way. That, for me is gold dust. So while I do still think about my weight, it is no longer my focus or my measure of success.
All of which is a VERY long-winded way (sorry!) of saying that giving up sugar entirely and for ever will bring many benefits. But it is not guaranteed to get your weight to where you’d like it to be and keep it there. Only you can decide what you want to make your priority.