Im late to the party here and want to congratulate Crete on your success! I was in your boat about a year ago concerned about my condition at 53 years old: at 5'10" I was hovering between 210-215 pounds...not grossly obese, but very pudgy for my height and frame. I was quickly becoming a type 2 diabetic with A1C's rising to near 7, moderate hypertension, and had been taking a statin for about a decade for high cholesterol. In the past I've counted calories and got up to about 5 miles every day jogging which got me down to about 180 pounds. I felt great, but it didn't really change my numbers, nor was it sustainable as life became busy and stressful causing me to fall off the wagon time and time again. I was a human yo-yo.
I'm the weirdo in this room, the guy that did something that will be deemed drastic, dangerous and unneccessary by most everyone here, and I'm OK with that. What works for me works for me and I'm not trying to convince anyone to do it. It sounds like you are having great success doing what you are doing so I say keep it up! I started a Keto diet last March as too much sugar in my diet was what I percieved to be the source of all of my problems. I did that for about a month before I decided to give up carbs all together doing what is called a carnivore diet. I eat nothing but meat of any kind: beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, fish, eggs.....and literally NO sugars or carbs of any kind. No grains, no fruits, no vegetables.....nothing but meat. Contrary to popular belief, we don't need those things to thrive.
I went from 215 pounds to 160 pounds (which I've been at for roughly 5 months), gone from a waist size of 36-38 to a 32 comfortably, my A1C and blood pressure have returned to normal levels and I took myself off of the statin I was taking. This all happened without counting calories and without exercising one bit. I do think exercising is important, I just haven't done it yet during this time. I haven't lost the muscle mass that I had, just the fat that was around it. I plan to start some resistance training to put all that protein to work. I've just been procrastinating to this point.
Not just anyone will want to give up all the sugary things and fruits and veggies though and I get that. For me, I wasn't really eating fruits and veggies anyway, I was just eating garbage. I've never been a veggie eater. I've never been a drinker so I am not missing that either. Since eating this way lowers the amount of insulin flowing in your system I don't crave anything either, even when someone brings cake or donuts to work (which is every damn day). Its not hard to look at it, knowing that I love it, but I'm just not craving it anymore.
Anyway, I look forward to all the hand wringing and pearl clutching over my diet and talk of my imminent demise.