One thing I learnt in Science is that if you eat below 1,500 calories (for men only, women = below 1,000 calories) you'll lose weight, whilst this obviously isn't good for you, I was told that as long as you change your diet to eat protein enriched foods (whilst attempting to eat less than 1,500 kcal per day) and so forth, the weight won't just suddenly drop off, it will steadily go down. What you want is food containing mono-unsaturated fats, as they reduce bad cholesterol, although polyunsaturated fats also reduce cholesterol, they are considered to not be as of a wiser choice that the mono-unsaturated fats, as they also reduce good cholesterol. (Good lord, I'm sat here eating a Big Mac meal.) One way I used to control my weight was to have a set time to eat meals and snacks, this way my body became used to when it was going to get fed, and I found I didn't get hungry and so I didn't want to eat so much at dinner time. (Blah blah blah!) Diets are hard to control, because unless you have extremely good will-power, you tend to lie to yourself, if you've eaten a chocolate bar you'll tell yourself you havn't really, or that it doesn't matter because it's just once in a blue moon, in reality, if you're going to eat chocolate, then eat a small amount but do it on a regular basis. If you don't eat the fatty foods on a regular basis you'll only crave it more, and so you'll break your diet. (I'm just jabbering now.) There's a load of stuff on the internet, books and so forth.