After reading that book I am quite convinced that "low fat" is not the way to go, and that the current Food Pyramid guides are way off (as they are very heavy on the grains). And I'm not sure it's as easy as "calories in, calories out". Because when your blood sugar regulation gets put off-kilter, it affects so many other systems.
With so much information out there, and so much of it conflicting, I've ended up resorting to what I always do in such cases: asking what would our ancestors have done? What was the evolutionary context for this question? This is why things like BFing and cosleeping make so much sense to me. In terms of dieting, I lean towards paleo which is basically low carb. Because for most of human existence we did not eat processed grains, nor did we have refined sugars. We did, however, eat as much fat as we could get our hands on in the form of seafood and animal meats. If you think about where most North Americans get their fat, it's not meat and fish, it's bread products and fried products (battered!) and things with sugar.
Today is the start of week 4. Total weight loss as of this morning: 6 pounds. Woo hoo!
Congratulations! I lost 10lbs in September cutting out all grains, beans, starches & dairy and doing an exercise program that I could do at home & only took 10-30 minutes a day 
, so I gained a lot of muscle in there as well. Unfortunately, I didn't keep it up & have now gained it all back (darn girl guide cookies 
).
I also found it hard working around all the food preferences here & often having to make a separate meal for myself. I did manage to get the kids to eat a taco salad one time, though! I just really hate making salads!!
I read a great thread over in Healthy Eating about how people can potentially thrive on all kinds of diets - high fat, low fat, plant based, TF, etc. The common thread seems to be seeking out less processed, more whole foods and eating them in moderation. This idea made a lot of sense to me, since I know some fabulously healthy vegans who consume much less protein than some of the equally fabulously healthy TFers I know, and what they have in common appears to just be mindfulness and an aversion to process crap.
I heard somewhere recently that depending on where your ancestors came from, your body will have different requirements for fats, meat, carbs, etc. Some people do well on vegetarian diets & others don't...although I also heard that kids should never be on strict vegetarian diets and even the vegetarian gurus that are doing so well on that diet were brought up on meat & potatoes!
Dr. Mercola has his nutritional typing evaluation you can do on his web site that breaks it down to carb, mixed or protein type. I am (as suspected) a protein type & need a lot more meat than others & a lot less carbs (veg or starch).
My diet sucks, all around. I was doing well for a while, but I've backslid a lot this year. It's just been so topsy-turvy and I've got such brain fog that I can't seem to get on top of anything, including meal planning and preparation.
I hear you about the meal planning & prep, but for me it's more about finding things that everyone will eat even if we don't restrict anything. Brain fog can definitely be from what you are eating, so it's a vicious cycle...great info on that in The Ultramind Solution by Dr. Mark Hyman.
Take my advice, everyone...I'm not using it!! 
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