Diet vs Eating Sensibly for Weight Loss - is there actually a difference?

Before I even get weighed, which I am due to do later on today, I can tell I have lost weight.

You'd think I'd be over the moon, but I'm not. I'm worried. I feel exactly like I feel when I am "on a diet." A bit hungry all the time, can't really settle to anything much, and most of all, worried that what I am doing is wrong. I wanted to lose 1lb a week, so when I weigh myself I should have lost 2lbs. I know it's going to be more than that. I'm scared of diets because diets don't work. You put it all back on afterwards, with more besides. And if you lose too much too soon, it's water - or worse, your body switches into "starvation mode" and burns muscle instead of fat. How do I know that's not happening to me?

I am of course "on a diet." Even if the British Heart Foundation's plan I recently downloaded does try not to focus on weight loss and calorie counting, and emphasises eating the right things in the right proportions, the fact is that it is still a 1500 calorie a day diet. And I'm not sure where I go when it's finished - can I suddenly eat more again?

What I think I'm going to do, at some point over the next couple of days (which are going to be busy ones for me) is get some good advice about what I should be doing - possibly from the practice nurse at my doctor's, or I might get in touch with the British Heart Foundation to ask some of my questions!

On a positive note, I am feeling a lot more energetic and my aches and pains ... have gone! So I know I must be doing something right!