The only way to lose weight permanently is by a lifestyle change: changing what we see as food. There are two reasons we eat: so we live another day and for pleasure. When we evolved/were designed pleasure was the secondary reason, it has become much more important today where processed food and so much food is available. For processed food read fat and sugar are so available. For processed food, read anything made in a factory.  I mean anything! Assume it has added fat and/or sugar as it is a rare product that does not.
Fat and sugar are addictive. They give us a high hit of pleasure. The physiology is they cause a spike in dopamine in the brain: dopamine pleasure hormone. Fat and sugar are so rewarding, as when we evolved/were designed they were in extremely short supply. They were great things to get hold of as they were in short supply and they are high in energy(calories).  Today, fat and sugar are in almost all food from a factory and are still highly rewarding and high in calories.
The other issue to think about is dairy products. Dairy is fattening besides being not good for us in a myriad of ways. Cows milk was designed to grow a calf into a cow weighing a ton or so! low fat milk is still a high fat product. Cheese is something a lot of people find hard to give up (strong taste-it’s all that fat)
A useful step is to think about what you are eating at the moment. Writing it down or better still keeping a diary for a week. Just the act of keeping a diary will change what you eat as you pay more attention to whether the thing you are putting in your mouth is fattening or good for you. Once you know what you eat, you are in a position to work out what you are going to take away and what you are going to add.
Adding good stuff is helpful in getting rid of bad stuff.  What’s the good stuff? No suprises here. Everyone knows fresh fruit andvegetables are good for you. The more of them the better. But they will never fill us up. This is where complex carbohydrates come in. That is real food-not refined carbohydrates from a factory. chickpeas, lentils, beans, rice, oats. These are the foods that will fill you up and along with the fruits and veggies will provide fibre. Fibre is that wonderful ingredient which grows good bacteria in our gut and these bacteria have a positive effect on everything from our immune system to our mood. There are 10x more bacteria in us than there are cells in our body, so their effect is very important. This is a huge area of research at the moment. There is no fibre in meat, dairy or eggs.
Increasing fibre is essential for long term weight loss, as is reducing or eliminating processed food. If you get rid of dairy, you get rid of a lot of fat and a lot of other bad things out of you intake and you will do your health a favour and it will be a lot easier to lose weight.
I don’t know where you are at the moment in terms of what foods you eat. Most people will need to have a change of attitude towards the foods they have been eating. Basically, change from seeing them as desirable foods, to undesirable foods: foods that are putting on weight and making me unwell or setting up chronic illness. There is a transition period. If you go cold turkey on the foods you are going to leave behind it will be easier. Our taste buds are used to fat and sugar.  They can be re-trained and within a period of a few weeks the new foods will taste great and the old foods will taste not so great.
There’s lots could be said about how this all works, but it is a long story. In a way, it is a short story. Eat fresh food, cut out dairy. The difference between this and the Paleo diet is make fibre as high as you can: poohing is good!
Catch up with me if you want to talk about this.
Gaz