Jim Foster does not claim to be an expert on health, exercise, dieting or nutrition. Instead, his identity as a self-proclaimed “joe-average person who has tried to get to grips with the reality of diet and nutrition” is what brings in new readers to his site Diet Blog on a regular basis.

Foster’s attitude about weight loss, according to his site, is “that different things work for different people. Nutrition is individualistic.”

Foster, who took over the blog from online entrepreneur Dane Carlson in 2004, wrote in an e-mail interview that a goal for Diet Blog is “to be the most-read source of diet information and opinion.” He wrote on his site that there is “an awful lot of noise out there about dieting and weight loss,” and he indicated that his site hopefully makes it easier to sort through all of the information on the Web.

Diet Blog boasts a wealth of information, reviews and commentary on popular diets, weight-loss fads, health, fitness and celebrity endorsements. An entire section of the site is devoted to reviews of the most popular diets including eDiets, the South Beach Diet and NutriSystem.

“It’s very difficult … to stay balanced,” Foster wrote, especially when reviewing different diets.

“[My] own interests and experiences with trying to lose body fat are a major part of the impetus behind the blog,” Foster wrote, but he tries not to only support things that worked for him and criticize things that didn’t.

Foster noted that his site can be helpful to those in need of information and guidance. In addition, he wrote that he believes his site “cuts to the heart of the issues – why do you want to lose weight? Should you? What really works? And why are we so obsessed with our size anyway?”

On top of comprehensive reviews of popular diets, Foster has a lengthy archive section that is updated a few times a day. His topics range from humorous (“Chocolate Worship”) to informative (“Reduce Carbs and Eat More Protein”) and socially conscious (“Ever Been Humiliated?”).

Foster does not advertise or promote Diet Blog, and according to him, “all the readers just come from word of mouth, or other people mentioning the site.” Diet Blog is recognized as one of Forbes.com Best of the Web in the health and fitness blog category.