I piled on weight when I had my son. I was then asked to be maid of honour at my best friend's wedding in a sleeveless dress....nightmare.
I upped my exercise, doing situps, leg exercises etc as well but I started to really look at the fat in my diet. I cut it out as much as I could. I lost a stone and a half in about 6-8 weeks.
I have managed to pile some weight on gradually, despite the dog walking etc in the last couple of years. Basically sitting eating junk in the evenings. So, I have substituted pretzels for crisps and avoid chocolate. I f I am craving it too much, I have one or 2 small pieces or go for a lowish fat things, like a curly wurly or Crunchie. Since January I have lost a stone- but I have also been going running. Initially I piled weight on, which was more than a little demoralising!!! It has levelled a little now but I feel so much better and notcied for the first time today I have much more power in my legs I managed to run a mile in under ten minutes today and that was after a 2 hour dog walk
So......I say watch your fat intake and substitute it for low fat options. When you start looking at the fat content in some things it's scary!!!!

Ofc overweight people can lose weight with only exercise and a regular diet (I assume we are talking about a diet here where they eat for example their 2000 kcal a day that will maintain their current weight). If they need 2000 kcal to maintain current weight and eats them, then goes and exercises for 300-400 kcal the same day then ofc they will reduce their weight over time.
But, the best combination is a little reduction in diet and then add the exercise.

And, overweight people should want to build muscle to, because WEIGHT itself isn't the important thing, it's bodycomposition.
I make all my clients do measurements before we start, because looking at the scales only is hopeless and might give a very wrong impression of their progress .
The same size lump of fat and muscle will not weigh the same, but surely it looks better with less fat, yes?

Any health/fitness professionals please correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that muscle is more dense/more compact than fat so essentially takes up less space pound for pound. Also it is metabolically more active than fat so burns more energy just by being there. With more lean tissue you should look smaller.

That's completely correct.

Exactly. 10 stone of pure lean muscle looks a lot different to 10 stone worth of flab!

I went from a size 14 to an 8 purely through exercise alone, if anything I ate more calories, not less. Weight didn't change that much but my body shape completely changed, my legs and stomach were totally toned. I really need to get back into running

A couple of years ago I lost over 2 stones and for the most part I've kept it off. If I swell a little I am able to control it and get it back off.

Most diets don't teach you how to change your habits. I used the Tony Feguson programme. Its centred around low GI and I still eat low GI.

What's different for me these days

- I eat at least 3 different protein types per week
- I eat every 3 hours on average, mostly fruit and often bananas because i like them
- I understand which foods are high GI and will make me hungry quicker after my last meal. Obvious ones tend to be Bread, Pasta etc. Less obvious high GI are things likes peas, sweetcorn, melon. I still eat them, but less often
- I still use the Tony Ferguson recipe book and the website as the meals are great
- I indulge at the weekend, i.e. Saturday and Sunday I'm off healthy eating. I like Beer but I do not drink alcohol on a school night

If anyone asks me how I've done it I tell them two things. Watch your carbs. Have a good reason other than weight loss.

Weight loss is boring. My reason is life! Better lifestyle. My father died at 61 and hid first major coronary heart attack in his 40s. His father died in his 40s from heart disease. If I'm not fit and healthy I will die - strong motviator!

I do also exercise more. Its easier when you lose weight because you get less injuries. I have an excercise machine in the spare room and I simply walk the dogs faster than I used to.

Downside....cost me a fortune in clothes when I lost weight. Went from an XL in all my clothes to M. Lost 5 inches off my waist, 1 1/2 inches off neck size and 4 inches round the chest. I got smaller.

Just had a fascinating conversation with a cancer research uk research fellow regarding the link between high levels of omega 6 in the modern human diet and cancer/obesity. Very illuminating.

Can you expand on this please? It seems that every health food shop stocks pots and pots of omega 3,6 & 9 - I've got some in myself!

I'm not doubting you at all and clearly for some people it is possible to lose weight just through exercise, but I still think the majority of the time diet comes first.

You have to burn roughly 3500 calories to lose 1 lbs. If a 30 minute run at 10mpm burns 300 cals ish and you run 3 times a week, it's still going to take you almost a month to lose a pound. Considering that a lot of people (me!) have to slowly work their way up to being able to sustain that kind of exercise, that's even more reason why weight loss through running (for example) alone is going to be a pretty long journey. At the moment in W4 of C25K I'm burning roughly 150 cals a run. That's only 1800 cals burned a month. If I were to only do C25K and not alter my diet, I would gain weight not lose it for the time being.

The best possible, proven way of losing weight is to combine a steady calorie deficit with exercise, but if you can only pick one, the calorie deficit is where you want to be primarily.

It is true it can take a lot, but even resting muscle burns more energy than fat, and it makes you feel and look better
Depends if you love what you are doing too - a few years ago me and some friends took up mountain biking - full days out in the mud - I was eating 4k calories a day when we were out and loosing tonnes of weight