Too many people give up trying to lose weight because they have tried a certain amount of diets without any long term success. They think that the fault lies with them. However this is far fom the truth, the fact is that dieting in its traditional form has a success rate of just 9%. Does this mean that the other 91% don't try hard enough? Of course not, it just means that dieting is not an effective way to lose weight.



Everywhere you look you will see adverts making incredible claims about their products, they want your money and they don't care how they get it. In their adverts they will throw in words like:

Amazing, New, Fantastic, Incredible, Revolutionary, Astonishing, Astounding, Guaranteed, Breakthrough, Scientific, Extraordinary.

These words are meant to appeal to your desperation to lose weight, and sadly they often result in people handing over their money for products which are never going to work for them. Try to think of how many weight loss products you or people you know have purchased in the past that haven't worked. I'm sure you will know what I am talking about.

You will also find that many companies offer endorsements and scientific data from so called medical professionals. These so called expert opinions are not given freely, they are paid for by the companies selling the products. Think about it, if I said to you that I would pay you ten thousand dollars just for saying my product was great, would you refuse to take my money?

People see these extraordinary claims and think "wow! This could work for me; look at all the scientific evidence". So they hand over their cash and in a month or so they find themselves back to square one.

If you look closely you will find these words hidden away somewhere in the advertisement "results may vary". You will often have to look hard for these words, but I can assure you that they will be there.

This is a clever way for companies to wash their hands of any accountability. If they are so sure that they can deliver what their advertisements promise why do they need to add these words? They do it because they know that what they are selling is not going to work for the majority and if you complain they can say "it does say in the small print that results could vary".

Be very way of companies that promise you miraculous results because weight loss doesn't come under the realm of miracles. The fact behind weight loss is a simple one:

Burning more Calories than you Consume equals Weight Loss

There is no new method or product that will change the formula above. It has always been that way and it will always be that way, regardless of what people try to sell you.

The main problem that people have is not losing weight, but keeping the weight off. The very word 'diet' conjures up something of a temporary nature. You go on a diet for a certain length of time, maybe lose some weight, you feel happier, and then you come off it. Soon the weight comes back, and you go through the same process again and again, until you finally just give up.

Dieting is a short term solution for what is often a long term problem, so it is not an effective method for weight loss in the long term. The reason why dieting will never work in the long term is because most diets are based on a large cutback in calories. If you are used to a certain lifestyle it stands to reason that any drastic change will be an unexpected shock to your body and mind. This is why it is so hard to stick to a diet.

If you take up running, do you think you would be capable of running marathons in a couple of months. Your body and your mind will need time to adjust to what you are doing. When it comes to losing weight people expect to see long lasting results in a short time. This is never going to happen as you are not giving yourself the time to adjust to the new methods.

If you are used to eating 4000 calories a day and you drop down to 2000 a day, what do you think will happen? You may struggle through for a week or two but your body and your mind will fight you every step of the way until you give up and go back to eating 4000 calories a day.

If however if you were to just cut your calories by 250-400 a day, it would be much easier as it won't come as such a shock to your body. It will be able to handle this adjustment without too much complaint. After about a month or so your body and your mind will get used to this loss of calories, and then you make another small adjustment.

You need to ease yourself into making changes to your diet and exercise if you want to succeed in losing weight for good. A quick fix is never going to be the answer, simply because no matter what you see advertised, there is no quick fix. Accept this and then you will be able to lose weight without torturing yourself.

Forget all the fad diets and all the rash promises that companies make to you. You won't get any company keeping in touch with you about your progress after you have purchased their product. You're on your own and if it doesn't work for you, remember they did mention somewhere that results could vary.

Deep down you and I both know that losing weight can be difficult and it is not something that you will succeed at in a matter of weeks. Accept the fact that it took time for you to get where you are today and accept the fact that it will take time to change that situation.