Sticking to a diet can be challenging. Many people find themselves bouncing from one diet to the next, looking for the magic formula that will help them lose weight and keep it off. Unfortunately, a miracle weight-loss pill does not exist, and most diets fail. Long-term weight loss is most effective when you combine a balanced, varied, healthy diet with regular exercise.
Diets are Based on Deprivation
Most diets focus on foods you can eat only at certain times of the day, in combination with certain other foods, or not at all. Whether a diet restricts fat, sugar or carbohydrates, when you're told you can't have something, odds are you'll start to crave that food more than ever. Allowing yourself to eat your favorite foods, in moderate or limited amounts, can eliminate your feeling of deprivation and allow you to maintain your healthy eating program. "Rather than diet, you should learn how to healthfully eat diet portions of any food that you currently enjoy and would like to eat throughout the rest of your life," says Nancy Clark, MS, RD. "Healthful eating offers more long-term success than crash dieting."
Diets are Unsustainable
Crash diets that rely heavily on eliminating one or more meals or food sources may work in the short term. They rarely work for the long term, however, because at some point you will go back to eating your normal diet. Restrictions can also affect the amounts of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients you consume. According to the Mayo Clinic, healthy eating habits and regular exercise are the best steps for long-term weight loss.
Diets are Confusing and High Maintenance
Certain diets require you to count or calculate calories, fat grams or dietary fiber. Others require special, expensive, prepared meals or specific foods that might be difficult to find in your local grocery store. Healthy eating programs, on the other hand, allow you the flexibility to include the foods you want and those that are readily available to you.
Diets Do Not Address Underlying Issues
Excess weight results from overeating, which often occurs when you're bored, emotional or stressed rather than when you're actually hungry. Diets ignore the triggers for emotional eating; in some cases, they may even contribute to the problem by increasing your stress level because you're feeling deprived. A healthy eating plan and regular exercise can help you deal with and overcome emotional eating by allowing you a small treat or a healthy snack alternative or the substitution of an energizing exercise routine. If the issue were simply a matter of eating only to satisfy hunger, points out HelpGuide.org, no one would be overweight.
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