Diets Don't Work

When will we ever learn? There is no magic when it comes to successful, long-term weight loss. How many of us have tried the diet of the month, desperately hoping for that magic, fast solution to our weight management issues, only to feel frustrated and disappointed in ourselves when we “fall off the wagon?” What is “the wagon” anyway?
Having recently attended an all day symposium on the latest research in weight loss, I left with these important words, “DIETS DON’T WORK.” During the seminar, lecturers showed a videotaped interview with a woman who was put on her first diet at two months old. TWO MONTHS OLD! Both her mother and doctor decided that the baby was too ”fat.” That was her introduction to dieting and the beginning of her lifelong struggle with her weight. Forty years later, she struggles with her 500 pound body every day. In her opinion, had she never been forced to diet, she would not be the size that she is today.

Why do we even start dieting? Is it because a parent or “friend” suggests that we are looking rather pudgy or is it because we are built bigger than the “Skinny–Mini’s” at school? Somewhere along the line we are told, or we begin to believe, that we are not good enough the way we are. When I first talk to people about their dieting history, I ask them to think back to their first diet. Most people admit that they really didn't have much of a weight problem back then...

So the word is out. DIETS DON”T WORK. Sure they allow us to lose weight in the short term, but the weight always comes back. Statistics show that 60% of dieters who lose weight put the weight back on within 1 year and almost 100% of them regain all of it (and then some) within five years. So if you do only one thing, stop dieting and start living a balanced, healthy lifestyle.