diet suggestions?

[var123]

Dh and I have made a pact to start a diet and stick to it. He's asking me for suggestions and I know about lots of diets, and about healthy eating and what are good weight loss foods etc., etc. What I don't know is what diet actually works as I've never lost more than 1 stone on a diet and I need to lose at least 4!

DH asks about the 5:2 diet. I've tried that. I found the 500 cal days difficult but what really got me was the will power element. It always seemed better to do the 500 cal day tomorrow, rather than today.

Also i find that I can follow a diet to the letter but if I don't drink 2 litres of water a day, at least, then I may as well have been eating fish and chips every day.

Can anyone suggest a good, non-boring diet that works if you stick to it?

What about the Dukan diet?

Or has anyone ever tried the 30 Day Fat Burner Diet? I've had that particular book so long that the pages are yellowing...

I liked the science of the 5:2 diet, but I found it so, so hard. I would go to bed the night before the day I was due to do it, and dread it.

So I'm doing a version of 5:2 now, I just diet every second day. Quite strictly! but only ever second day. On non diet days I don't go mad and obviously I make reasonably healthy choices. Brown rice, brown pasta, fish, veg. No desserts. I've only been doing it a while but last weekend (unusually for me I had something on saturday and sunday so I just took two non-diet days in a row and then back to 1000 cal on monday. I've something on tomorrow so normal day tomorrow, and then 1000 cal on Wednesday. It's been easy so far .

I've lost the same five pounds a few times now, and granted, maybe this is the same, I've lost about four pounds and yet I hardly feel like I've been on a diet. People who are really evangelical about the 5:2, properly doinng it, under 500 might not compare what I'm doing to the 5:2 as it's not a fast in the same way. But it is a calorie deficit every second day.

I did the dukan a while ago. I made the buns and everything. It's healthy I think. I didn't like the cauliflower mash though. bleurgh! I lost five pounds on that diet too!