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Are you working with a Nutritionist? If not that's where I would start...someone who walks the walk, etc.

It's not an easy issue. Sometimes simples gives are the best way to start. For instance I gave up fried foods and sweets (stuff that uses refined sugar or high fructose corn syrup). These are the worst offenders from a nutrition and standpoint. Next I learned what stimulates fat storage in the body...high glycemic foods. That eliminate any solid food that is white...white bread, white potatoes, white rice and of course sugar.

Read "The New Nutrition" for a better understanding of what foods are good and which are harmful...know makes it easier to resist.

Learn how to eat out without killing yourself with salt and sugar....

Allow yourself one "bad" meal a week when you don't worry about whether it's good or bad. Eventually, you won't want to eat bad. I remember eating a greasy pizza after having NOT eaten one in months. The pizza was horrible....

Eat a little bit of the bad stuff regularly to satisfy your cravings. I carry a one bite candy bar with me for my chocolate fix for desert. I have my one cup of reduced fat ice cream for desert after dinner at home. Reduce soda by %90. If you drink 0 cal soda, just drink water instead. Have that one soda as a special time for a treat. Not technical advise, but I think practical advise.
Ron

Carbs are my big weakness so I went on a carb cycling diet a couple of years ago and still eat that way today. That being said, as I got into shape I wanted to eat better so here are a couple of things that I do. I don't eat fried foods most of the time. When I crave them, I oven fry lightly brushing the food with a little bit of olive oil. Cooked this way, everything tastes so much better. You taste the food, instead of the fat and the grease. Try butternut squash cut into french fry shapes this way..delicious. If you must have breading, dip the protein in eggbeaters and then in crushed Fiber One cereal. When I want pasta, I eat quinoa pasta or shiritaki noodles. I also eat 1 cup of pasta mixed with 1-1/2 cups of boiled zucchini cut into a pasta shape. Bread for me is always Ezechial, very dense, full of fiber and very filling. If your weakness is potatoes, eat sweet potatoes or yams..lots of fiber. Sweets aren't a huge problem for me but there are health benefits in dark chocolate, but make sure that you eat it in moderation. I had a weight problem all of my life until I started carb cycling and following the principles of Younger Next Year. Rad also has a great suggestion. Do treat yourself one day a week but once you start to eat nutritious food, I think that you'll find that over time you will lose your cravings for all of the foods that don't support a healthy lifestyle. I dropped and kept off the 25 lbs.for two years. Best of luck to you.I've dropped and kept off

I think Fatboyover50 is gone...like so many who have posted for help here. Hopefully, he/she is finding help elsewhere. It's tough to beat those cravings. They are natural.

There are several tricks to manage cravings. Some are mentioned above. Another is to avoid the seriously deranged foods like French Fries, 1000 calorie milk shakes, and bloom-in onion. There are several sources on-line that describe the worst foods you should avoid and thus save an eventual trip to the ER. Another trick is to find a suitable "substitute." Some that I use are LaraBars, fruit, nuts with raisins or small amounts of dried fruit, nut butter with good lean meat and uncooked veggies as snacks. A third trick is drinking enough water (1/2 oz per pound of bodyweight per day). Finally, it's important to understand the exercise value of some of those cravings. How much work does it take to BURN a Snickers bar? A heart rate monitor tells us exactly how many calories we burn during exercise. Then compare that effort to the candy bar's calories. Eventually, we'll find that eating that stuff isn't worth the effort!