Health Ride

Join the ride to better health!

Why Dieting Doesn't Work

I want to look at a problem that many dieters face every time they try to shed however many pounds on the latest dieting fad and fail.

Want to know why dieting doesn't work?

I'll let you into a few secrets that the big diet companies are not letting you in on!

dieting doesn't workDiets do not work. None of them.

Flawed Diet Process

Not the raw food diet, not Weight Watchers, diet meal delivery programs like Jenny Craig or Nutrisystem, low carb, high fat programs like Atkins or the Dukan Diet, etc.

There are no diets that work, and there is a reason for that. Dieting is about following a strict set of rules but not necessarily about understanding why you are following these rules.

Maybe you try Slim Fast, and follow all the Slim Fast rules, having Slim Fast two meals a day and a "sensible dinner" but you aren't losing the weight and you cannot figure out why. That is because the process you are following just doesn't work.

What Does Work?

If you want to lose weight you have to learn a different way of thinking about food, and thinking about how your body works. You need certain things, just like a car needs gas, oil, and other fluids in order to run properly. Just like your car cannot go down the road without tires, your body needs to be properly taken care of in order to run and go down the road.

So if dieting doesn't work, how will you ever lose the weight?

Learn How to Eat for Your Body

First you have to stop treating it as a diet, and start thinking about healthy living, healthy eating, and proper nutrition. Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and other similar diets will teach you proper nutrition, however you do not have to spend a great deal of money or join a group in order to learn these things.

Most of what you need to know about nutrition can be found online, at your local library or can be learned by asking your family physician the right kinds of questions. The food pyramid has been around for decades and it will point to the right kinds of foods that you should eat each day, how much of each item on the pyramid and so forth.

The problem is that the old food pyramid is flawed and you should research a diet before going on it. Proper nutrition goes beyond that however; you also need to know what proper portion sizes are.

Portion Size

Most portions that you serve yourself at home or that you get in a restaurant are not going to be proper portions; in fact most people eat way more than they should on a daily basis. Plates are getting bigger, and with plates getting bigger we find it harder to know exactly what the right size portions really are.

Dieticians generally suggest then that you use smaller plates, choosing instead of dinner plates to use the smaller size down, and that way you are not tempted to pile as much food on; at restaurants order the half sizes or children's sizes, and for fast food never upsize your meals.

There are many suggestions to getting your portions under control, mainly what it comes down to though is education, knowing what size portions you are supposed to be eating and then following through. Step two is learning how to eat the right sizes and of course the right foods.

Certain foods even small portions are going to be fattening, simply because your body doesn't digest it. The best advice I ever heard is that if you want to lose weight: forget about dieting and learn about proper nutrition.

-TOP-