How-to Stop Dieting - Part One

Approximately, sixty-five percent of Americans are overweight and nearly one-third of those are obese. Hundreds of diets and weight-loss supplements exist, yet Americans are still facing a serious epidemic problem. After trying many diets and supplements that guarantee weight loss, many people find themselves on a rollercoaster ride, watching their weight go up and down, finally left gaining the original weight back, sometimes gaining more weight than lost. The problem, dieting. The solution is to change one's lifestyle. Dieting has three major downfalls that lead to failure. First, dieting does not change unhealthy eating habits. Second, dieting creates short-term goals, deprives the body, and leads to overeating. Finally, dieting usually leads to weight gain greater than the original weight lost.

When dieting, most people have an ideal weight or size they would like to reach at the end of the diet. However, once this weight or size is reached many people find themselves reverting back to habits which caused weight gain in the first place. In order to permanently lose weight, it is most important to know one's self. For example, ask yourself "at what time during the day do you consume the most calories what does your diet mostly consist of?" Of these habits, which ones are healthy and which ones are unhealthy? Then decide which habits are truly worth eliminating.

Next, dieting requires one to deny themselves of foods for a certain amount of time. This can quickly cause the body to crave a particular food, causing one to overindulge. Instead of completely eliminating the food for a certain period of time, try changing the quantity consumed. For example, instead of not drinking any soda for one month, try only drinking one soda a day.

Finally, the major drawback to dieting is self-starvation. When one starves themselves, the body will burn its reserves to maintain homeostasis, but once the self-starvation is over, the body's metabolism will slow down to "restore" those lost reserves. This is the reason for gaining the weight back and many times gaining more weight than before. Do not try to change all unhealthy habits at once and within reason one should not deny them self. For example, don't cut all sugar out of the diet, simply limit the amount you consume, and then only consume one candy bar a day.

Dieting may lead to a short term weight loss, but many dieters report weight gain, sometimes even more than the amount lost. To permanently lose weight, one must change their lifestyle by observing their own habits and slowly changing the unhealthy habits.