Reddit reviews The Sugar Addict's Total Recovery Program: All-Natural, Simple Solutions That Eliminate Food Cravings, Build Energy, Enhance Mental Focus, Heal Depression

Hey, I found it on my bookshelf (actually wife found it). The Sugar Addict's Total Recovery Program. https://www.amazon.com/Sugar-Addicts-Total-Recovery-Program/dp/0345441338

The short answer, which I'm sure you already know, is to burn more energy through exercise than what you input from food & drink.

The long answer is, you need to learn about how food works, but more importantly (because it's harder) is to change your relationship to food a la the way Alan Carr teaches you to change your associations with cigarettes.

First up you need to create new habits, which is a bit like rolling a really big rock: it's really hard to move at first, but once you get it rolling, it's own momentum will do most of the work for you, making it easy.

Recognize that you need to be doing half an hour of exercise a day - regardless of whether you want to lose weight - just in order to be healthy. An easy way to start this is to just go for a half hour walk every day. In the morning, at night, at lunchtime - whenever, just make sure you move your entire body for half an hour, every single day. It's hard at first, but they say it takes 21 days to develop a habit, and after that it's natural.

Then you need to recognize that you can't do it by diet or exercise alone, you need both. If you want a drastic change in your body - you're going to need to make drastic changes in your lifestyle. Think of it as a system reboot for your body and mind, only this one will be even more awesome than Batman Begins.

Ween yourself off sugar - it's literally poisoning us. The Sugar Addict's Total Recovery Program is a good book to peruse in this regard. Cut out sodas and their 12 teaspoons of sugar in every can. I find sparkling water with a bit of lemon or lime really refreshing if you find water just too boring, or even do some sugarfree sodas sometimes (which are not healthy, but at least aren't full of empty calories if you want to lose weight) like Fresca.

Educate yourself about the state of food politics in the US, it will give you enormous insight into why you're in the state you're in today, as well as put you off a lot of the food and drinks that you may currently think of as 'normal' food. I began with Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, and anything by Michael Pollan offers great advice and insight, probably the best of which is "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants". Most people in the first world eat too much sugar, salt, fat, meat and carbs, and that's why they're unhealthy. But there's really nothing you can't ever eat; just things that you should eat more often and less often.

Learn to cook basic at least three meals, eg stir fries, soup, some seafood. You never really know what's in the food you're eating unless you make it yourself, and cooking can be a very therapeutic exercise. If you live by yourself just make enough for two and hey presto, you've got leftovers for lunch.

But for the love of Reddit - don't diet. There is no such thing as a diet that works.

In terms of exercise, swimming is probably the best low-impact (in terms of stresses on your joints), yet high return thing you can do for your body (in terms of strengthening your aerobic, i.e. lung capacity, and burning calories). But it's not going to help you lose as much weight as going to the gym. The reason why is your metabolism. Building lean muscle mass increases your body's resting rate of metabolism so that you burn more calories even when you're not exercising. To do this you need to lift weights (known as anaerobic exercise) and eat lots of protein. For maximum returns in terms of burning calories and building muscle you'll want to do both aerobic and anaerobic exercise, and to get the best payoff from the aerobic exercise do it immediately after anaerobic exercise.

TL:DR In a nutshell: it's changing your habits and associations with food, and creating an exercise habit that becomes normal, not an effort, like a morning coffee or Friday afterwork drinks.

When he starts reducing alcohol in his life, make sure to watch out for his diet. Many drug/alcohol issues can be partially managed with proper diet.
Essentially, brains with a certain chemistry are prone to addiction. A deficiency in natural endorphin production in the brain causes one to seek out foods that trigger endorphins, such as sugar, drugs, and alcohol. I cannot find the study I found years ago, but it showed a link between diet change and a higher proportion of successful rehabilitation.
I personally manage a genetic predisposition to alcoholism with proper diet and what is surely a mild substitute addiction to sugar. Potatoes are amazing at reducing sugar cravings. A box of instant mashed potatoes is always in my kitchen pantry. I tried to give up sugar cold turkey a few years ago, and went through some actual addiction symptoms, which were alleviated by a particular change in diet.
A possibly useful article: http://www.addictionsolutionsource.com/alcohol_addiction/alcohol-addiction-and-hypoglycemia
A fairly useful book: http://www.amazon.com/Sugar-Addicts-Total-Recovery-Program/dp/0345441338