I've been trying to encourage my buddy for years now to lose weight. His health insurance threatened to drop him in his early 20s due to his high risk of mortality.
He had the works going on - morbid obesity, high blood pressure, triglycerides at an unsafe level. He makes progress sometimes but always gets discouraged, which sucks.
I doubt he's ever going to lose the weight, and it's not just because the nutritional sciences are basically a step up from witchcraft, it's mostly because there are very few people at his size who have dropped that kind of weight and kept it off. He's probably got nobody to relate to.
Don't get me wrong, there are great diets out there (Lyle McDonald's Rapid Fat Loss /PSMF for one) that could get the job done no problem. I run a PSMF every year to get lean for the summer season. If I ever get cancer it messed with the wrong guy.
Actually if anybody is interested in losing weight you can hit me up over PM. I'm pretty sure I had a nutritional thread here on JSP a few years back but no idea where it's at or if it's worth reading.