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I lost 20+ pounds a modified Atkins type program. For the first week, I tracked my carbs and tried to keep them under 25 net. I ate "paleo" style (no grains, legumes or sugars, no industrial oils, high fat/protein). After the first week, since I had an idea of what foods were high/low in carbohydrates, I just tried to keep my diet low/moderate carbohydrate. Overall, it was pretty easy. The hardest part was the first day or two, I had massive sugar cravings!

After I lost all the weight I wanted to, I just transitioned to a paleo diet without the emphasis on avoiding carbohydrates. It's naturally still pretty low in carbs, but I now eat sweet potatoes, squash, honey, dark chocolate and red wine.

My favorite non-cheat "cheat" is dark chocolate dipped in nut butter. 

ETA: I didn't weigh myself often, so I'm not sure when I reached my goal weight (may have been sooner than my "weigh in"), but I was "dieting" for 60 days. I would guess I lost most of the weight in the first month.

The skinniest I ever was...I was on the worst diet ever....beer and chicken wings and cardio like crazy. I was lke 95 lbs and toned as hell.  Mind you, this wasn't on purpose, I was just working crazy hours at work, and bars were like the only thing open. And after working like 30 hours, man that beer looks good!! LOL

But seriously, my grown-up diets are low carb with a nutritionist (yes, my insurance covers it for free...so if you have it, ask if they have a "wellness program")!!! They work! But you MUST watch your saturated fat and cholesterol!!! Dukan and Atkins are best. Diabetes Today reccommends cutting your carbs below 100 grams if you want to lose weight quickly. On Dukan and Atkins, your carb intake is under 20 in the first few weeks. Dukan takes off water weight quickly, but that does start to creep back on once you get to the core weight loss. I would say if you want to lose weight fast, do Dukan for 3-5 days to pull off some water weight, then switch to Atkins. Then for long term maintenence, South Beach all the way.

Basically, in order of severity and pros/cons:

• Dukan: Most limiting, but the lowest in saturated fats. If you don't vary your food enough, it can cause nutritional deficiencies, so you MUST eat a wide variety of the allowed foods (which is very hard). Gets boring. Not good for maintence--you'll have to modify it. Good for insulin resistance.
• Atkins: Great for loss and okay for maintenence, but horrible for cholesterol and fats. If you can't lose on Atkins, try Dukan. You'll also need to tweak if you are insulin resisitant.
• South Beach: Great if you need to cut down your portions and learn to eat healthier. Not great for weight loss really, but amazing for maintenence. Just stay away from the packaged foods.

Other diets:

• Weight Watchers: Okay, but I gained weight on this. It just had me eating too may calories, and tracking the food was such a pain that I just started eating the power foods, which were full of carbs and sugar. Not a good fit.
• Slim Fast: Full of sugar and processed junk. Plus, the meal "replacements" don't actually replace anything...you just end up eating snacks, then having WAY more than your daily limit of sugar.

By far, the nutritionist and eating low carb has been helpful. I eat low carb, but the nutritionist from my insurance's FREE wellness program reminds me to keep my saturated fats low, keep my sugar low, and to try new foods (like pomegranates and things). We set food goals like "try this" or "prepare one vegetarian meal". They call me once a month for like 20 minutes and ask about what I am eating, how I am feeling, and if I am getting my 20 mins a day of exercise.

I lost 75# several years ago following WW and kept it off four about 4-5 years. I stopped smoking around the same time I met DH, and got happy and let myself eat what I wanted for far too long....and found myself up about 20#. I've struggled a lot with trying to get rid of it. WW changed their program and it just wasn't working for me. I'm currently using MyFitnessPal.com to track calories. I've really only been "hardcore" for about 5 weeks now. I'm not really weighing myself at the moment, but I'd definitely lost inches.

The hardest part for me is that I am a QUANTITY eater. I love that feeling of full...I want to feel that way all the time. The first few weeks are usually the hardest for me, I just have to retrain my stomach AND brain to accept that sometimes I'm going to feel hungry.  The other hard part is that my husband is a picky eater who has the palate of a toddler, so I am usually just cooking for me. I stopped trying to please us both.

The easist part? I guess exercise. I actually like it and so I stay active even when I'm eating for four. :) I also really vegetables.

I try to focus on real food as much as possible. I avoid soda and artificial sweetners, but I have my weak moments. Snacks are usually bananas, apples with PB, some snack bars ( I like cliff mojo bars). But, when I first started weight loss, I wasn't as much focused on the type of food. I ate a lot of diet foods until I learned what worked for me and what didn't. I also found that those diet foods were not as filling, which is how I started to wean off them.

Good luck!!

@abbie017:  Sorry, but that's a tautology, an absolute over simplification. Sure, energy is preserved, that's simple physics. That still doesn't account for what happens to that energy. Is it stored in the form of fat, is it burned to fuel the body, etc? That's the rub. Also, your body strives for homeostatis, so it will slow down or speed up metabolism in order to acheive this. Hormones also play a part.

Sure, calorie counting diets can help to lose some weight, but they almost never work to the capacity that they're "supposed to". 3500 calorie deficiency rarely leads to exactly 1 lb of weight loss, and this is because of all the factors I've mentioned.

"Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler"

(And before anyone tells me I don't understand simple science, there are plenty of scientists, like Gary Taubes, who argue that the statements like these about the first law of thermodynamics as it applies to weight loss completely ignore the second law)

@abbie017:  Again, I disagree that it's all about calorie consumption, or "moderation" for that matter. I think that's a silly concept. What is "moderation", anyway? 

Your body will unquestionably do something different with 1200 calories of chocolate or 1200 calories of whole wheat pasta or 1200 calories of steak & broccoli, and this will inevitably be tied to weight loss, satiety and energy.

I'm still in the process, but I've lost about 35 lb. so far. What I've done:

- Cut out all soda/sugary drinks and cut down on alcohol and caffeine. Soda was actually easier than I thought, alcohol the easiest because I wasn't a big drinker to start with. Giving up my Starbucks habit was HARD, but I finally broke that as one of my 2012 New Year's resolutions.

- Drink 60 - 80 oz. of water a day. Sometimes I drink more depending on how hard I work out, but I try to get at least 60 oz. in (approximately 3 refills of my water bottle - I fill it up in the morning and drink water throughout breakfast and my commute, refill when I get to work and try to finish that by lunch, then refill after. Normally I get closer to 80-100 oz. a day if I stick to this. If I have tea or coffee, sometimes I don't get more than 20 oz. until after lunch.

- Calorie counting! I know it's not for everyone, but whether you do points via Weight Watchers or use a strict calorie counting tool like MyFitnessPal or even just keep a written diary, it is SO important to know how much you're eating and how often! I had no clue how much sugar I was getting nor how many calories I was eating for snacks. I now eat 5-6 times a day (3 meals, 2-3 snacks that I keep under 200 calories each) and shoot for a balance of nutrients. I also cut out almost all fast food and try to make my meals and have at least 3-5 different fruits/vegetables a day.

- Exercise, exercise, exercise. I think a balance of cardio and strength training is key. I do cardio 3 days a week, strength training 3 days and rest 1 day. For strength, I alternate upper body, lower body and core so I'm not working too many muscles at once (and also so I can give each muscle group enough weekly attention). I vary my cardio: walking, elliptical, Zumba, pilates, yoga and try to push myself and set new goals.

Of course, I haven't been perfect. I still have about 140 lb. I'd like to lose, and I've recently hit a major plateau and even gained a couple pounds back - but as long as you accept bad days (or even weeks) will happen and get back up on the proverbial horse, you'll be able to meet your goals.

Honestly, it IS simple when you get down to it. As abbie017 said, eat less and exercise more. It's the getting there that can be difficult because we have so many bad habits and tendencies ingrained in us. It took me MONTHS to break some of my bad eating habits, and even after more than a year I'm still struggling with others. It's a lot of willpower, a lot of want, but if you commit to it and take small steps every single day you will get there.

I use My Fitness pal to track my calories every day and log my exercise. There isn't a magic formula, you just have to stick to it. I've lost 28 pounds since October 2011, simply counting my calories and working out 3-4 times per week.

Unfortunately, it's not a matter of opinion, the way etiquette is, it's a matter of science. You can read why most low calorie diets are also low carb diets here http://garytaubes.com/2010/12/calories-fat-or-carbohydrates/. Why would you starve your body of needed energy if you don't need to?
The other reason I'm always harping on the calories in/calories out notion (other than the fact that it ignores the second law of thermodynamics), is that I think it is unfairly discouraging. By telling people it's all about calories in/calories out, you're assuming telling people that basically they're just too lazy/lack willpower to lose the weight. This is untrue. Biologically, your body wants to maintain homeostatis, therefore will fight your attempts at weight loss through starvation methods. There are plenty of people who try low calorie, and fail because they're too hungry (the body doesn't want to be starved), or because their body has slowed down their metabolism to account for the missing energy (again, body wants homeostatis).
FTR, I don't believe in "fad diets" or "pills" either...when was I recommending that? IMO, high carb/low calorie diets are a fad. Do you think our ancestors needed to count calories? Do you think they watched what they ate? No, they ate a naturally low carb diet, and lifted heavy things. None of this involved eating celery or doing intense cardio. Really, the only "modern" notion is "eating healthy" (our version of healthy is NOT our ancestors') and doing cardio, so, in reality, you're recommending the fad diet.

I think there are as many ways to lose pounds as there are bodies. I have an emotional attachment to food and require a certain ammount of structure to lose weight. I will not stop eating when my body is done needing energy because my "full" signal is broken. Calorie counting works for me.

@Bostongrl25:  

I'm sorry, I will continue to argue against the notion of calories in/calories out, I feel very strongly about it, and, since apparently this boils down to "opinions", I'm entitled to mine. I don't know what you're referring to when you say "healthy", but, apparently, this is subjective, and so I don't think it's helpful to the OP or anyone to say "I ate healthy and watched my portion sizes". What does this even mean? 

I see that most people that have had success with their diets (though, like I said, lowing calories translates to lowering carbohydrates, so this doesn't really negate anything I'm saying about hormones) has had a long, hard path. I'm just offering an alternative, and I am very passionate about it. I don't think dieting has to be painful, I don't think it has to include hunger, and I don't think it requires withholding. Why am I not allowed to be passionate about losing 20 lbs in 30-60 days and keeping it off? (BTW, I eat chocolate and drink wine every night, so I'm not exactly deprived, either).

Look, we've been telling people to "eat healthy and watch portion sizes" for decades. LOOK AROUND YOU. I don't think this is a successful push towards health. Why don't we try something new?? 

I lost about 100 lbs. on the Paleo diet...took about 1.5 years...It's easy to do, but the hard part is going out and being social. You really need to eat before you go so you aren't tempted.

www.paleodiet.com

I went off the diet and gained back almost 50 lbs. I need to get back on, but I'm a little depressed at the moment and it's not a good time.

@les105:  I love paleo.

To me a diet is not something permanent. It's a fad to lose weight. (Just my opinion!)
The right thing to do is eat healthy and exercise regularly. That is what I am doing. I have a long, long way to go but I'd love to take off 30 pounds before my wedding this summer.

@Bostongrl25:  Like I said, eating "healthy" is relative. Vegans think it's no animal proteins, paleos think it's no grains/legumes/sugars, etc. Portion size is also relative. The same way "calories in/calories out" gives absolutely NO helpful advice, "eat healthy and watch portion size" is really useless. 

For instance, I "ate healthy and watched my portions" IMO. Although, eating healthy to me means something different to me than you, and watching portions meant eating when I'm hungry, until I'm full. See how this works?

I feel like I'm repeating myself over and over, but, like I said, a reduced calorie diet is a reduced carb diet, I didn't say you were counting carbs.

Listen, if it works for you, fine, but don't lecture me like how dare I bring science/anthropology into it,, it's absolutely relevant, and saying otherwise is kind of silly.

It's worked for years? Then why do we have such an obesity epidemic? If it's so "simple" then what's the problem? We must just be lazier and more stupid than previous generations who had none of our problems.

@SandyDollHair:  Sigh. I think I should just bow out of this, because apparently people want to do things the hard way. If eating "healthy" and watching portion sizes was so easy, everyone would do it. Do you think overweight people want to be overweight??? It makes me sad that people aren't interested in science and just want to repeat conventional wisdom over and over. There is clearly something deeper going on here and no one cares to admit it. Oh, well.

I used sparkpeople.com every day to track what I ate. I started to also track paterns- like food that made me hungry or filled me up, stress eating, days I ate poorly. And from there, I changed how I ate. I still slip up from time to time. But I stand by that if you learn about what you are eating, you will eat better. Eating a pot pie full of chemicals is not as good as a more calorie-full homemade one with healthy oils, loads of veggies, and lean protein.

For exercise, I started run/walking, spinning, and yoga every week. I gave myself a dollar for every half hour I worked out or mile I ran. In less than a year, I ran a half marathon and could bench press my weight. I also tracked my activity and planned it out a week in advance.

From tracking food and exercising, I lost around 50lbs in less than a year. It wont happen for everyone, but it worked for me.

Right now, I am trying out WW because I wanted to stop tracking calories and focus on points. So far, I've lost about 5lbs in a month.

@les105:  Do you realize that the Paleo diet is a fad? It's a fad because it takes away one of the major food groups that you should eat. It's not a sustainable lifestyle. http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/sc-health-0420-palos-diet-20110420,0,7758445.story

@misspeanut:  See, the word "unhealthy" is what I have a problem with. What constitutes "unhealthy"?