Healthy Diets: Effective or Waste of Time?The FTC has stated that over 95% of the estimated 50 million Americans who go on healthy diets each year end up gaining back all or MORE of the weight they lost.
In general, diets don't work because they are a temporary, quick solution to a long-term problem. Going on a diet and losing 10 pounds is great but unless you change your lifestyle permanently, you will gain the weight back, plain and simple. Most of us go on a "diet" because we want to accomplish a short-term goal. For example, "I need to lose 10 pounds before summer starts so I look good in a bathing suit" or "I want to drop 25 pounds before my wedding so I look better in my dress."
Changing your bad eating habits permanently is the only way to drop pounds and keep them off. And this is the missing element in most diet plans. Fortunately, some of the popular diets out there have started to realize this, and they now offer tools and resources to help you achieve long-term, sustainable weight loss. But it starts with changing your mindset. Think about what you want to look and feel like at the end of this year, then in 3 or 5 years, then develop several goals and milestones that will help you accomplish this. Another crucial component of dieting is to combine your healthy diet with regular exercise to accelerate fat loss and help you increase your metabolism. There are a few popular healthy diet plans out there, all of which have their share of flaws. We encourage you to take bits and pieces of each of these and incorporate them into a permanent healthy eating plan that works best for you personally. Let’s explore some of these weight loss programs in more detail:
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