You still kill me daemyn!!!
Sounds like you guys are on the right track- especially about the gradual diet method, that's a great idea.
The really nice thing if you've read that long post is if you remember that information, you are armed very well to defend against 95% of the scams and misinformation- in fact some of them seem funny!
For example- on www.fatfacts.com, the guy claims "It's not the food you eat that makes you fat- it's the fat you eat that makes you fat!" Which sounds somewhat accurate, but now you know that it is indeed the food you eat that makes you fat because too much food, even fat free food, gets stored as fat! So you know to ignore this doofus!
Also, on "www.holdthetoast.com" a woman talks about a low carb, high fat diet allowing her to lose 40 lbs without exercise! And she eats as much as she wants and still loses weight! (for $29.95 she'll send you a book about it). Well, using your knowledge you laugh at this! If she's eating as much fat as she wants, she's getting TWICE the calories as if she ate all the carbs she wants- and without exercise to burn it off, how can she possibly burn more fat than she consumes?
And also you'll start to notice that almost ALL the gimmicks like fat creams, fat blockers, magnets, or whatever also require "this product must be used along with a low calorie diet and exercise to be effective". Gee, I wonder why!
Bernie