I think I peaked out at 173 when we were down in South Carolina (on a 5'6" frame). Lazyness, beer and a diet of processed foods did me in. When we moved back to Massachusetts and I interviewed a new Gastroenterologist (I had Ulcerative Colitis since 1993), he recommended this book to me:
https://www.amazon.com/Plan-El...ital-text&sr=1-1
Once I went through the book's discovery process and knew which foods weren't working for me and eliminated all of them, we ended up on what is basically the "Mediterranean Diet" with a few twists to accommodate our (slightly different) food allergies. Dropping bad reactionary foods was huge for us. I went from 173lbs. to 150 in about a month and then stabilized at 153 since then. The whole process took less than three months and we ended up on a MUCH better diet: No processed foods, No beef or milk (we're lactose intolerant, so we use almond or coconut milk and sheep or goat chesses), lots of pan roasted veggies, little red meat (and then, just Bison), moderate fish (no shell fish for Kathy), minimal salt and sugar and so forth. It is a very easy and fulfilling diet that we're certainly living well with.
Oh, and after three years on "The Plan" and being on our new diet, I had my every-other-year colonoscopy and my doc could find no indication of ulcerative colitis at the microscopic level (except for past scarring) so he pushed me out to 5-year scope intervals. That's a pretty good endorsement, in my book. For about 15 minutes I was a celebrity patient at UMASS Medical Center's Gastroenterology department for having beat Ulcerative Colitis.