Before I begin, I'd be interested to hear what diets people have used that have worked for them; by worked I mean cut off unnecessary weight, helped with exercise, made them feel generally better etc. Also like to hear how this compares to what I do, and what your thoughts are.

I only just discovered recently that I've been in the best shape of my life since I've been alive, and thought I'd share what I've done to get there. For me, I've never really followed a set diet, I currently eat very healthy and am precise as to what goes in my body, and I try to eat every 3 hours.

Initially, I just eat healthy, cutting out fats and sugars as much as possible. Now, if I want to lose weight, I first cut the majority of my alcohol consumption, and then cut down the calorie level by cutting down on carb-rich food, I keep the veg, fruit, protein and exercise level (ETK) the same. However, I've found cutting out carb-rich food levels completely screws up my energy levels, so I always have some (and find that I still lose weight rapidly).

Once I am comfortable, I keep my calorie level at about the level my body needs to stay the same (I calculate how many calories I burn approx and BMR as to how many I need normally and add the two), once again through playing with carb-rich food. If I put weight back on, I repeat above.

I'm currently at about 14% body fat, 19 years old (less than a month away from turning 20), am 6 foot 4 in height, weigh 82kgs, and through this diet approach have lost over a stone in fat (probably much more considering the increase in muscle mass - I never used to exercise before dieting) and am feeling great. As I said above, I've honed down my approach a lot more since I started dieting 2 years ago, and I now that had I known what I know now, I would have lost the weight a lot quicker.

Here's on average what I eat (pasta/rice/potato amounts (carb-rich) vary as to whether I want to cut back or not):