Losing weight on a diet is easy at first. In fact the more strict
the diet the easier it is to lose a lot of weight quite quickly. You
might want to lose weight because you have had a health scare; there's a
new year starting; thoughts about summer holidays; seeing beautiful
clothes in the shops but never in your size; or just seeing yourself in a
full length mirror. It doesn't matter what the trigger is but there
will be something that causes you to stop thinking "I must lose weight"
and to actually take action.
The action most people take is to start a diet.
Diets involve a total change of eating patterns; keeping track of what you eat; and counting whatever the diet wants you to count in order to track your food intake. The diet itself is immaterial. If you look at the research it shows quite clearly that whatever diet you use you will lose weight. That's because all diets change your eating patterns and reduce calorie intake. They dress them up in different forms so they have something to sell - whether that be a book, a course, or a club to join. But they get you to cut down on what you eat.
And it's great for a while. You lose some pounds - usually the biggest losses come right at the beginning. This positive feedback of weight loss encourages you and you keep going, doing exactly what you did to gain your big success, but at the next weigh-in you haven't lost nearly as much. The one after that no loss at all... Then you put a couple of pounds back on...
And it was all going so well.
This starts to make you question your sacrifices and doing without all of your favourite foods, so you have a relapse, go over your allowance one day, and then think oh! Well! Today's a bust, might as well just eat what I want and start the diet again tomorrow. That's when the binge starts and you enjoy some of those delicious delights you've been denied for the last few weeks and undo all the sacrifices you have made over the past few days.
From then on it's a bit of a roller coaster, a bit up a bit down. Enthusiastic then demoralised. Until eventually you either abandon the whole thing - until next year, or manage to reach your target weight.
The real problem starts when you reach your target weight because then all of your struggle is rewarded. You can now fit in to the clothes you want, the diet is at an end and so you need to reward yourself. The reward is always, always, always sweet, fattening, food.
Once the target is reached, the pressure is off. But there is nowhere to go now, no drive to keep you to your limited food intake. So eating gradually returns to normal and the weight comes back. Dieters generally end up even fatter than before they dieted.
Diets are a waste of time and energy. They lead to long-term misery and weight that becomes harder and harder to shift.
The action most people take is to start a diet.
Diets involve a total change of eating patterns; keeping track of what you eat; and counting whatever the diet wants you to count in order to track your food intake. The diet itself is immaterial. If you look at the research it shows quite clearly that whatever diet you use you will lose weight. That's because all diets change your eating patterns and reduce calorie intake. They dress them up in different forms so they have something to sell - whether that be a book, a course, or a club to join. But they get you to cut down on what you eat.
And it's great for a while. You lose some pounds - usually the biggest losses come right at the beginning. This positive feedback of weight loss encourages you and you keep going, doing exactly what you did to gain your big success, but at the next weigh-in you haven't lost nearly as much. The one after that no loss at all... Then you put a couple of pounds back on...
And it was all going so well.
This starts to make you question your sacrifices and doing without all of your favourite foods, so you have a relapse, go over your allowance one day, and then think oh! Well! Today's a bust, might as well just eat what I want and start the diet again tomorrow. That's when the binge starts and you enjoy some of those delicious delights you've been denied for the last few weeks and undo all the sacrifices you have made over the past few days.
From then on it's a bit of a roller coaster, a bit up a bit down. Enthusiastic then demoralised. Until eventually you either abandon the whole thing - until next year, or manage to reach your target weight.
The real problem starts when you reach your target weight because then all of your struggle is rewarded. You can now fit in to the clothes you want, the diet is at an end and so you need to reward yourself. The reward is always, always, always sweet, fattening, food.
Once the target is reached, the pressure is off. But there is nowhere to go now, no drive to keep you to your limited food intake. So eating gradually returns to normal and the weight comes back. Dieters generally end up even fatter than before they dieted.
Diets are a waste of time and energy. They lead to long-term misery and weight that becomes harder and harder to shift.
Michael Hadfield, author of 'How to Lose Weight Easily', has been
helping people to lose weight for around 14 years. If you'd like to
know a bit more about why diets don't work then check out my free video
series which goes into this in much more detail. http://www.hypnosisiseasy.com/weightcd.htm
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