the diets that work are the ones with the highest compliance ratio.
IME, i can comply with a diet that does not take away any kind of food groups. in other words, i do not really believe in "diets" ... i believe in monitoring one's calorie intake and adjusting according to there.
if you wanna lose weight and a big part of your meal consists of 2 cups of rice and 4 oz of beef, adjusting it to 1 cup rice, 2.5 oz beef and a crapload of vegetables would result in you eating less calories.
if you like potato chips, and cannot live without them, you can sacrifice something like rice on your normal meal, just so you can have chips.
those are just examples of working around calories that can only be possible if you know how much you are actually eating.