Diana Rowland blogs about how she approached losing 12% of her bodyfat. In going from 40% to 28% she lays out her guidelines:

Basic #1 EATING: No, a calorie is NOT a calorie. It is vitally important that you feed your body properly and sufficiently and efficiently when attempting to lose fat. Sure, you can drop some weight in the short term with a low or no carb diet, but it’s going to cost you in the long term. You have to feed your body to convince it to let go of the stored fat. That means eating clean, of enough food, with approximately a 40/40/20 split of carbs/protein/fat.

Diana also offers up a chart of her progress and before and after pics that many people take in order to guage their progress: