Ever tried the special k diet?

It's extremely restrictive which means that once you go back to a normal calorie count you will most likely gain the weight you lost back. If you count the calories it allows, it's only about 1000. For a moderately active woman you should figure about 100 calories per 10 pounds to simply maintain your weight, or have a moderate weight loss. I follow a modified Slim Fast/Special K diet (they both have the same calorie count per day if you follow it strictly and similar food plans) where I use a Slim Fast shake for breakfast and for my snacks during the day I use the Special K snacks and I eat 2 sensible meals a day. I am slowly and consistently losing weight, on average a pound or 2 a week. I also limit what I drink to mostly water, very rarely will I drink anything aside from that. I don't eat a lot of fat free/low fat foods. I also cook at home, a lot. This helps keep chemicals and preservatives and chemically made sugars (HFCS) out of my food, which I feel is a healthier way to go. I try to include fruits and veggies through the day in what I'm eating. Often my lunch is a large salad made of spinach, very veggie salad blend, cucumber, tomatoes, carrots, green pepper, black olives, grilled chicken, croutons, and blue cheese dressing. The dressing is barely enough to have some flavor of it in each bite. I think that if you are willing to drastically change your diet by following a plan like Special K then it would be easier, and in the long run better for you, to make moderate changes. The loss that you get from that will stay with you over time.