Diets don't work. Only permanent lifestyle changes work. Reread that.
Paleo/SouthBeach/Atkins/whatever are good because they cut out the really heinous stuff in the modern diet. They don't seem like diets I could deal with as a permanent change, though.
The problem with weight loss is not that it's unpleasant (though it is if you want to do it fast) but that it's inconvenient. I just don't know how anyone keeps weight off without cooking all their own food. That's a commitment. There's almost nothing I can buy at the store in a box, bag, can or frozen aisle that achieves the goal of limiting sugar (in any of its forms), white flour, white rice, white pasta, soda, fruit juice, etc. Fast food is even worse.
Fruit and whole grains are not the enemy. You'd have a hell of a time gaining weight eating apples, strawberries, cooked grains, etc. Refined stuff that's been stripped of anything that makes it hard to digest is the problem. No one has trouble eating 1000 calories of white bread, but I defy you to eat 1000 calories of wheat berries cooked in orange juice with salt, bacon and dried fruit tossed in. Same basic ingredient, but the unrefined version is incredibly filling.
If you start a spreadsheet listing exactly how many calories you eat at each meal, and really do limit yourself to a deficit of maybe 500 calories a day for weight loss, you will very quickly come to figure out which foods make you feel full and which ones leave you dying of hunger an hour after eating. It'll be the meals with lots of vegetables, protein and some fat.
Most traditional cuisines will keep you in pretty good shape if you cook them yourself and are moderately active. Obesity rates don't skyrocket until countries start eating a modern western diet and people start driving everywhere in cars. There's some kind of lesson there...
My easy weight loss plan, which has kept 30 lbs off over a couple of years: walk everywhere you can, buy a good general purpose cookbook (How to Cook Everything, Joy of Cooking, etc), make everything you eat (meals AND snacks) and record the calories you consume and your weight every day. If you don't lose weight, consume fewer calories. Keep it up even after you've lost the weight.
About.com has a pretty sweet page that spits out nutrition info from a typed recipe. This article in the Times was interesting, too.
