Low calorie diets have been around for a long time. Probably longer than any other kind of diet. They consist of the simplest dieting idea: Eat less. Such a simple idea may sound like good idea. People love simple. But the truth is that low calorie diets are not the best approach to losing weight. In this article you will find out why a low calorie diet plan is not the right choice for losing weight.

Reasons why low calorie diets do not work well:

1. They slow down the body's metabolism. A slow metabolism will cause your body to hold onto fat as a survival method. Your body will begin to burn muscle instead of fat when it goes into this mode. This is why it's essential that you do not eat too few calories. And it's the top reason why low calorie plans are a bad idea.

2. They are very difficult to stick with. Even if low calorie diets were effective (and they're not) they are also almost impossible to stick with over a long period of time. There's only so long a person can go eating very small portions. Most people give up on a low calorie diet just a couple of weeks (or even a couple of days!) after starting it.

3. They don't teach you what to eat, only to eat less. This is extremely important. A great dieting plan will let you know which foods you really should be eating rather than just telling you to eat less. Many people on low calorie diets end up eating a few high calorie foods (like donuts!) instead of eating a lot of high quality low calorie foods (which is a much better long term plan.) It's extremely important to learn the healthy way to eat. That's the only way to long term healthy eating.

4. It's harder to exercise while on a low calorie diet. Exercise should be an important part of any healthy person's lifestyle. It's difficult to have the energy to work out when you are undernourished.

5. Your body may not get enough vitamins & nutrients while on a low calorie diet. While you can eat a multivitamin to help with this problem, it's best to get your vitamins & nutrients from your food, not from a pill.

6. You will gain all of your lost weight back when you go off the diet. It's called "yo-yo dieting" and it happens almost every time someone gets on a low calorie diet. You may lose some pounds (sadly many of those pounds are muscle & not fat) but you're very likely to gain all of those pounds (with interest) as soon as you go off the diet. How sad is it to actually weigh more than you started after you go through this process? It's actually low calorie dieting that is the cause of many people's weight problems.

7. Counting calories will make you obsessed with food. You have to keep track of all of the food you eat and how many calories are in it. This means that you will actually be even more obsessed with food than you may already be when you are on this kind of diet. Isn't that a very bad thing? A food obsession is probably the last things that anyone dealing with a weight problem needs.