Lots of veggies, low fat protein (poulty, fish, very lean beef), reduced amounts of dairy & cheese, no processed junk, limited breads, natural sweets (honey) and mostly, portion size.
NO NO NO NO!!!!
Low fat protein will leave you feeling hungry. Your body needs natural animal fats.
DO NOT reduce your dairy and cheeses. DO NOT eat low fat dairy and cheese either. The low fat versions are loaded with fillers that are basically starch and sugar based.
Honey is not much better than table sugar. Switching honey for sugar is still going to mess with your blood sugar and insulin levels.
No processed junk? Got that right. Limited breads? Yeah, but for starters you want to cut them out all together. SERIOUSLY
Bread = sugar
Rice = sugar
Pasta = sugar
Fruit juice = sugar
Cereal = sugar
Potatoes = sugar
There is a free program at this website...
www.fitday.com
It lets you track nutrition info on all foods. Just enter what you want to eat (or have eaten) and it will give you the nutritional break down. You want to eat BELOW 60g of carb per day. Do not count calories to start, do not freak out over the fat grams for now, just look at the carbohydrate grams.
For every 50g of carbohydrates it is the equivalent of 1/4 cup of sugar. How many cups of sugar are you eating per day?
You can exercise until your legs fall off or cut portions until you make a religious faster jealous of your convictions, but neither will do you a darn bit of good until you stop trying to live on sugar.
Sugar spikes blood sugar levels. A raise in blood sugar triggers insulin release. Insulin is a FAT STORAGE hormone. It removes all that sugar from your system by stuffing it and trapping it in your fat cells. Since your body relies on free flowing nutrients in and out of those fat cells, trapping everything in the fat cells means nutrients aren't available to the body. So guess what happens? YOU GET HUNGRY AGAIN even after you just ate.
This is basic biology. If you don't get the biology, you can try all kinds of things to lose weight and you may just make things worse. (Like a low fat diet. Low fat diets actually cause long term issues like tissue damage, gall bladder problems, thyroid problems, hair loss, etc...)
The best book that explains low carb eating and how it is how our bodies were designed to function is "Natural Health and Weight Loss" by Barry Groves. Another good one is "Protein Power Life Plan" by Mike & Mary Eades. Until you can get those books, here are some very informative sources that are free on the web.
What Really Makes Us Fat
Why most of us think exercise will make us thinner and why we are wrong
What if its all been a big fat lie?
Dr. Jay Wortman's Story
What's wrong with politically correct nutrition
Sorry if I came off as harsh, but this is a topic that gets me riled up. The misinformation we are fed is dangerous to our health. I know it screwed mine up for years.