Does This Crazy Diet Advice Make Better Long Term Sense?

Have you eaten too much over the holiday season and now decided that you need to do something about it? January is a popular time of the new year to make decisions about improving our health and fitness but the principles are the same any time of the year.

If you are looking to lose weight you need to find something that works for you. This is vital because despite all the advice we can read most people do not have the success they want despite their efforts and sacrifices. So, if you have tried diets and failed what crazy alternatives do you have?

It was Einstein who said that it was insanity to do the same thing over and over expecting different results. Given his contribution to science perhaps more people should listen to him. But, given that the average person has been on 40 different diets by the time they reach middle age what can we learn? If people want a different result from their diet they must do something different. So, what errors are people making if they keep starting diets and keep ending in failure?

The basic science is easy. To lose weight you need to use more calories than you consume. That gives you two basic options. You can eat less but continue to use as many calories through exercise or you can consume the same amount but use more by increasing your exercise. There is a third element which we will refer to as metabolism. It is a complicated chemical process but is a way in which your body either stores less food or expends more.

So what crazy ideas can help you win the diet battle? The first principle is to stop repeating your diet mistakes. If you want to achieve a different result you must do something different. Firstly, you must avoid the problem of yo-yo diets . This is where you try to lose as much weight as quickly as possible by going on a very severe diet . OK, this may work initially but you are likely to change your metabolism by the dramatic change. Your body will believe that you are starving so it will respond in ways that you do not want. Very often people very quickly return to the same weight or even more when they come off these types of diet . I therefore recommend that you try to lose weight slowly if you want long-term changes.

It is also better to stick to your current meal plan and not cut out specific meals. If you have regularly eaten twice a day, stick to that. If you have eaten three times stick to this and don't be tempted to cut out a meal. Maintain a routine that your body is used to. It is better to eat less at each meal than skip a meal completely because this is what you body is used to and it will react more positively to this than a shock treatment approach.

So, try to eat in a routine way and lose weight slowly. Get your body to work with you naturally rather than shock it into an extreme response. By reducing your calorie intake so that you start to lose weight gradually you will find it a lot easier and you will not find yourself struggling against temptation which is what normally happens.

To learn how to transform your diet into one based on the healthiest foods that we have, follow the link below where you can discover how to improve your health.