Diets Do Work
How many stories and articles have you read that say diets don’t work? In the past week alone I have read a total of 7. That phrase I think is very misleading. In my opinion I think diets do work, some very well.
It all depends on how you look at them and what you are trying to accomplish. A diet is nothing more than a plan or program that either changes how you eat, how much you eat or how you workout. I am not talking about diet pills here as you can read how I feel about them at: Why diet pills are so popular. Unfortunately people look at diets as the solution to their weight issue and think that it will help them keep the fat off for good (this time).
Why Do Diets Work?
There are basically 2 types of diets one that restricts your food intake or one that makes you increase your exercise to either build muscle or burn extra calories.
The diets themselves do work when followed as designed. If people weren’t seeing results they would not be as popular as they are. Think about that for a minute. Do you know someone that has lost weight on Atkins or the South Beach Diet? I know many people that have followed these plans with great success. Many of them have gained their weight back once they went off the program, but that doesn’t mean that the diet didn’t do what it was intended to do. That is, make you lose weight.
When Diets Are Not The Answer
If you are looking to make a lifestyle change and not just lose weight that is when you should avoid diets. Making a change of that magnitude covers many areas of your life. Including how you view food (as fuel more than a comfort) and your notions of exercise as a useful tool to improve all aspects of your health.
This is what I like to promote as long term it is by far the most effective. It’s sad that there are no infomercials created to promote it though.
Popular Diets Plans
Here are some of the more popular diet plans and programs that are currently out there. Plug these into Google and You come up with 1,000,000 plus pages about them. If you do decide to follow one of these please use caution and do your research.
- Atkins
- The South Beach Diet
- The Abs Diet
- The Zone Diet
- Weight Watchers
- La Weight Loss
- Calorie Shifting
Change Your Expectations
Don’t expect a diet to be the solution. Even though it might work short term in most cases if you return to your old eating and exercise habits the weight will come back. People who experience this again and again are known as yo-yo dieters and that is not what you want to be. (hopefully)
If you change your expectations of what a diet means to you and what you hope to achieve by following it then you can save yourself the disappointment if it doesn’t deliver on it’s promises.
Hopefully you will realize that a lifestyle change is what you really need and you’ll take the necessary steps towards getting the healthy life that you want.
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