One plan that addresses the differences between and women and the different stages in a woman's life is Thin For Good by Fred Pescatore.

His program goes into the psychology of weight loss - which few other programs even touch on - which will enable you in your quest to be thin for good, just like the cover says!

This is from the introduction:

During my years as Associate Medical Director of the Atkins Center, I realized the paradigm needed to change. I do not want people relegated to counting carbohydrates their entire lives - a new obsession that for some people has replaced the old obsessions about counting calories or fat grams. The problems with the old low-carb diets were especially evident with women, who found that eating all that meat wasn't enabling them to lose the weight they wanted.

But I agree with agonycat on the yo-yo dieting. It makes it more difficult to lose weight initially.

The preferred method for increasing your fat burning metabolism is weight training. It also reshapes your body. And, you can eat a few more calories if you weight train. Cardio is not the best thing for weight loss.

Karen