I'm reading an excellent book at the moment called diet cults. It's about how we're psychologically predisposed to want to follow diets and evangelically believe in them, but ultimately it can't be a one size fits all. I haven't got to the end yet, but he looked at the national diet registry of 5000 people who 5000 have lost weight & kept it off and he found that although they all followed different diets (so any diet can work), they had the following in common:
1. They ate similar meals day in, day out - reducing choice, and increasing consistency.
2. They exercised a lot - burning 24th an average of 2461 cals per week in dedicated exercise sessions.
3. They were more motivated and determined to succeed than they had been on previous diets.
4. They weighed in regularly - daily in most cases. Obsessed were more likely to succeed.
Therefore to succeed we need to:
1. Find the right motivation and keep it in mind
2. Exercise for 40-60 mins 6 days a week to burn av 450 cals a session
3. Have a list of 3-4 go to meals for br, lunch & tea and only deviate on special occasions
4. Weigh in daily & record.
I'm going to give those rules a go.