The more you structure your diet, the better you’ll do. But the structure has to be simple, or you won’t follow it. Diets based on pre-planned menus generally don’t work for more than a couple days – because everybody eats out, nobody cooks. The structures that work best are simple and rule-based. My favorite is – you can eat up to a pound of any dead animal you like. That’s it. Or you can eat all the vegetables you want, anything you like, except peas, potatoes or corn. Or you eat only fish. Or you eat only chicken. Or you eat only eggs. Come up with a simple rule that you can follow for a few days, that limits your calories and limits your carbohydrates. You’ll lose weight.