Is water fasting the best way to lose weight?

I thought I would ask this question after Hopinso remarked "While (water fasting) is not the best way to lose weight, it can be used as an adjunct to a proper diet"

I started off as being morbidly obese, Body Mass Index over 42, and I lost over 70 pounds in 7 months by carrying out a series of Water Fasts between 7 and 27 days, ending up at weight 189 pounds in June this year. My weight is now stable.

The fasting process changed my outlook to food, and I now eat healthily. Before I ate crisps, now I eat apples. I don't touch fast food anymore. I hardly drink alcohol. I eat mainly raw.

When I was heavy I started to suffer knee pain, I found exercise difficult, I felt bad about myself. Diets never worked, I hated them and always put the weight back on. Fasting was very easy for me even with no preparation, and I didn't suffer any really bad symptoms throughout my fasts. I was however able to rest a lot, and did. And I have always been a generally a very laid back person, stress free. However I am now a lot happier as well, and physically feel a lot younger

I still have some work to do, I need to lose more, and I am considering the best way to do it. I want to get into healthy BMI range. My problem is I seem to be a bit lazy with regard to exercise. This I am working on (but here I am typing again).

So, I am again considering Water Fasting as a major part of the second stage.

For me Water Fasting was the best way - it was the only way that worked, plus it was easy and got rapid results!

So does the "best" method of weight loss depend upon individual factors? For example, starting weight, fitness, age and so on? Is there a down side to Water Fasting that I am missing? Is there a better method of weight loss for me perhaps? If so I have yet to discover it!