Why Diets Don't Work

Okay, who is on a diet; just fell off a diet or is planning to go on a diet? We are obsessed with weight and while we should be concerned with being overweight, we will not lose weight and keep it off, if our focus is on diets and dieting, and not on the simple lifestyle choices we can all make.

I have been on a number of diets over the years but tossed them all out the window about ten years ago. It was then that this simple reality actually sunk in: if I truly want to lose weight I must burn off more calories than I consumer. If I eat 2000 calories a day but only burn off 1800, I am not about to lose weight.

Now, the second part of this requires you to eat foods that are healthy. This does not mean that you must give up chocolate but you may want to rethink that chocolate mousse after that double cheese burger and fries. In fact, maybe just a single cheese burger well maybe just the burger and get some exercise and I am not referring to working the remote control

Get out of your house and walk, for example. That is what I did and the weight began to come off and stay off.

The rant ends here.

A diet is something that you do to lose weight and this often involves serious sacrifice, routines (weighing food, making note) and eating more celery sticks and carrots than anyone should have to consume.

Don’t get me wrong carrots and celery sticks are tasty, just not all the time.

If you seriously want to lose weight; first set yourself a sensible goal; if your goal is to lose 50 pounds in tow months, you may be disappointed and when we get disappointed we often seek to comfort ourselves and what do we turn to for comfort, food, and rarely carrots or celery.

Now a reasonable goal is to lose ten pounds. This can be done and can be done without any name brand diet.

Breakfast, as you are likely to have heard, is the most important meal of the day, do not skip it and do not think that donuts or muffins are a substitute. A whole wheat cereal with fruit and skim milk is quick and healthy.

Diets do not work because eating is not a diet it is a means of providing your body with the essential vitamins and minerals that it requires to perform.

A diet is viewed as something temporary, something that will last a few weeks or months and then you can go back to your old habits. Well you are likely to go back to those habits before the diet is over and feel worse about yourself than you did before you went on the diet and the need to treat yourself becomes strong.

You will lose weight if you eat five small meals a day and get up off the couch to do more than go to the bathroom. In fact, you may find one of the most effective weight loss techniques is not turning the television set on, in the first palce.

As I said to lose weight burn off more calories than you consume, you do not need a diet to do this.

Have breakfast, an apple or piece of cheese at break, a salad for lunch or a burger, a snack in the mid-afternoon and then supper. Try and avoid heavy meals in the evening, especially if your game plan is to watch TV.

Get some exercise. I am referring to light exercise, not a marathon workout. You must wait before doing anything strenuous but you can take a walk or mow the lawn say 45 minutes after supper. The idea is not to think of this as exercise but as getting the things done that need doing. If there are no chores to do, go for a walk, start slow and gradually pick up the pace, then gradually slow down.

We are not trying to feel the burn just work up a light sweat and shed a few calories.

Diets do not work. They require willpower, fixed routines, log keeping, food weighing and denial to name a few. They also often require you to read a book, now I am all for reading but a novel is a better use of your time, and create a diet plan.

Diets do not work because food is fun not work.

This is just too much work for something as simple as eating and as enjoyable as food.

Food is an essential part of life, enjoy it but keep the helpings down, you really do not need two brownies. One is enough.

Eat fresh or frozen vegetables, fresh fruit instead of fruit juices, avoid hidden sugars (read labels), eat lean meats, fish, chicken and embrace beans and legumes.