5 Reasons Why You're Diet Will Fail - By: John Bradstreet

At any given time 15 to 35% of people are trying to loose weight and the statistics are not in their favor. The fact is that 90 to 95 % of those people will fail to loose weight and successfully keep it off. Many of us will spend billions of dollars on diets and diet programs despite the fact that if you ask most nutritionists they will tell you that they are not worth the paper they are written on. Nutritionists realize that the key to loosing weight and keeping it off is to adopt and sound eating plan that can be sustained over a lifetime and not opting for some quick fix.

PROBLEM #1 DIETS ARE TEMPORARY FIXES THEY DON"T LAST

Diets have a short term time horizon. Perhaps you have gone on a diet to get into that dress you wanted to fit into for an upcoming event only to gain the weight back in a short period of time. This is because you had a short term mindset. You need to be thinking more long term. Use your diet to introduce yourself to new foods that you do not normally eat and that you can maintain in your everyday life. You need to be thinking lifestyle changes. A good rule of thumb here is that small changes last a long time while large changes do not. Saying that you are going to change everything that you are doing wrong at 8:00 AM Monday morning may sound impressive but it does not address the underlying problem. You have to change behavior slowly and steadily for it to work over the long run.

PROBLEM # 2 DIETS MAKE YOU HUNGRY AND INCORAGE BINGE EATING

A diet treats fat loss as a function of nutrition only. You loose weight if your body is running at a calorie deficit meaning that you are burning more calories than you are eating. This is where exercise comes into play. The calories you burn from exercise along with the added metabolism from muscle growth will shift your body into fat burning mode without making you hungry. Also diets encourage binge eating because you are going without the foods that you like. A solution to this is to have a treat once in a while. You need to be honest with yourself on portion sizes.

PROBLEM # 3 YOUR METABOLISM SLOWS DOWN

When you repeatedly loose and gain weight your body will learn to adjust to become more efficient. That means when you are at rest your body will burn fewer calories and when you overeat your body will store as much fat as possible. This is because it is anticipating the next "famine" and makes it harder to loose weight and keep it off.

This is particularly true when it comes to exercising. Many diets have you on such a low caloric intake that you have enough strength to get through your daily activities but not much left when it comes to physical activity there is little energy left. This is when exercise starts to decrease muscle mass and your metabolism decreases, the result being you do not burn as many calories.

PROBLEM # 4 PEOPLE BECOME TO INPATIENT

Usually when people decide to loose weight they want to do it as quickly as possible. They saw the advertisement suggesting that someone lost 30 pounds in a month and decide they want to do the same so that they will look good in that bikini this summer. The problem is that it is already April. This plan is obviously unrealistic. When you start out with an unrealistic plan you will become discouraged in a few weeks and give up your diet because you think you are failing to loose weight as quickly as you had anticipated. You need to remind yourself that you did not put on that extra weight in a couple of months and you will not be taking it off that quickly. It is known that people who loose weight slowly are more successful at keeping it off.

PROBLEM # 5 WE FALL INTO THE ALL OR NOTHING MENTALITY

You wake up one day and decide that you are going to have that chocolate bar today that you have been craving. Then at lunch you feel that because you already ate something of your diet why not wash it down with a few slices of pizza that you have been dreaming about for the last couple of nights and before you know it you are off your diet. You need to realize that one bad day does not have to turn into a bad week or month. Start to focus on the good food choices that you have made and incorporate them into your lifestyle.

About the Author

John Bradstreet is an experienced Biochemist with extensive knowledge in nutritional supplementation. He is a great source of information. To learn more about why diets fail we have included additional links at the bottom of the page to help educate you on the subject. You are also invited to visit our Vitamin and Supplement Blog f or information on this and other subjects.

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