The question of how to lose weight and keep it from coming back has beleaguered people for decades.  The daily stresses of life, all of the delicious temptations we face, all of the quick convenience foods available, and the constant bombardment from the media only add to the constant struggle overweight people face.  The result of this problem is a seemingly endless line of diet and weight loss products, tips, and tricks.  All of these elements add up to just one thing: weight loss failure. 

You can manage your weight effectively and even achieve your weight loss goals.  The process does not have to be difficult.  Achieving and maintaining a reasonable weight is essential to leading an overall healthy lifestyle.  Not only are the health benefits many; you will look better, feel better, and have more confidence.  When your body mass is balanced proportionately your body is under less stress, thus lowering your chances of serious health risks such as heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and certain types of cancer.

In order to lose weight and keep it off for good, you need to analyze your previous diet attempts, find out what went wrong, why they did not work, and to take a look at your current lifestyle.  Really look at what your food and fitness behaviors are, and what mistakes you tend to repeat.  Do not get discouraged, and do not be too hard on yourself.  Once you have taken an in-depth, and truly honest look, you will be more likely to make the needed changes and set up a plan that will work for you, meet your specific needs, and help you stick with your changes for the long term.

When setting up a personal plan, keep a few basics principles in mind: weight loss is a simple math formula that involves burning more calories than you consume.  Proper diet plus exercise will equal results.  Another way to look at it is: calories consumed minus calories burned equals weight loss or weight gain.  This does not mean that you need to eat less food; you just need to eat better food.  You can still eat the same volume of food, possibly even more food, and still reduce the number of calories and the amount of fat you take in.
 
Here a few eye opening facts to keep in mind throughout your weight loss process:  A single 3-ounce serving of fried potato chips packs nearly 470 calories.  Substituting 2 cups of lightly salted air popped popcorn for those chips gives you a 60 calorie snack; a savings of over 400 total calories.  One can of soda contains roughly 150 calories.  If you substitute plain water, or even club soda with a twist of orange, lime or lemon, you still get a tasty drink that contains only 2 calories; a total savings of 148 calories.  These are just a few examples to help illustrate how you can still enjoy treats, still eat enough food, and yet save yourself a good deal of fat and calories.  This is a perfect example of how changing your mindset just slightly can help you lose the weight, and keep it from coming back for good.

The basic definition of a fad diet is any diet, diet aid, or weight loss plan that promises astonishing results with little or no effort on the part of the dieter.  While these diets are not for all intents and purposes “bad”, they typically only offer short-term results, and they do not promote an overall healthy lifestyle.  Fad diets tend to concentrate on one specific substance, food or food group.  Some of these diets have been clinically proven to be dangerous, so it is extremely important to understand what each diet entails. 

A few examples of the most well known fads today are: The South Beach Diet, Hydroxycut, The Zone, Atkin’s, The Grapefruit Diet, Metabolife, Slim Fast, and Dexatrim.

So how can you know for sure if your diet falls into the category of “fad”?  A good rule of thumb to remember is that fad diets tend to come with extraordinary claims such as: “lose ten pounds in just two weeks”, or make the promise of allowing you to lose weight and keep it off without having to make any lifestyle or dietary changes.  Often these diets carry numerous testimonials from clients, who are really just paid spokespeople, touting all the wonderful results of the diet. 

In addition to these red flags, many fad diets also are willing to provide plenty of before and after photos of their clients, offer the assistance of weight loss experts, over simplify medical research findings, and limit your food choices but not in a manner that actually teaches you how to follow a healthy and balanced diet.  Fad diets also typically require you to purchase extremely specific items such as pills, prepackaged meals, supplements, meal plans, and seminars, in order to obtain the plan’s pledged outcome.

Now that you understand what a fad diet is, the potential risks they pose, and what these diets involve, you may still be left with the question of why people nevertheless willingly sign up for these programs.  The truth is, people want a quick fix.  In a society that is over run with obesity, people will do almost anything, except the true hard work and dedication it takes, to drop those unwanted pounds.  The companies and manufacturers of these diet programs understand this desperate need, and prey upon people’s desire to be thin, and their fear of developing the unhealthy conditions that come with being overweight. 

Another reason that fad diets catch on so quickly is that many of them do provide some short term results in a somewhat rapid manner.  The main reason that results do appear is because each of the diets tends to restrict your eating habits in some way.  What this really does is cause you to consume fewer calories than you normally would, and it forces you to pay extra attention to your diet.  People tend not to realize that the “weight” they are dropping is usually water weight or lean muscle mass, not fat.  Since these diets deprive you and only allow you to eat the same foods repeatedly, the body cannot tolerate it for a long period of time.  Dieters become bored and give into their cravings.
 
Just about every person who has tried a fad diet has gained back all of the weight they lost, and in some cases, even more!  As hard as it may be, we all know the only real way to lose that excess weight and keep it off is to make concrete changes in your life.  Make the tough commitment to get more exercise, eat healthier, and set reasonable goals that you can truly achieve.  The process may seem long and difficult, but once you have done the hard work, you will love the end results.