Why Some Diets that Will Never Work

There are diets that work for certain people, there are diets that do not work for certain people and then there are diets that never really work for anybody at all. Dieting is the most popular past time in the Western world and, makes no mistake that this is not a women-only issue. If you are a man and want a lot of women around you, then you have to stay fit.

Pessimists would say that a diet is a bunch of foods we don't like, in too tiny portions for our appetites and we must eat all that at specific times of the day. As nobody really eats this way, nobody can successfully diet and change their life style. I would say that dieting is, more than anything else, finding a structure.

It's been said that people cannot eat healthy with so many temptations around them and this is why diets don't really work, but the truth is that way too few diets offer a healthy structure that is both easy to follow and tasty. We cannot eat bland food all our lives and we can only drink this much grapefruit juice before we decide enough it's enough.

Add to that all the scientific discoveries that stress out the importance of our genes to our overall body type and the naysayer do seem to make a valid point when they argue that diets never work. The fact is that, as one medical study showed, 80% of the children who have two obese parents are at risk of growing into obese adults themselves and only 15% of the children who have two normal-weight parents are at risk of growing into obese adults.

So genes do play an important role, but so do your environment and your life style. It doesn't matter how skinny your mother and father are if you drink a gallon of high sugar fizzy drinks a day and eat only the greasiest burgers with XXL portions of fries.

We are all at risk of being involved in a car accident, whether we drive or not, but very few of us would ever have a car accident and even fewer will cause one to happen. Not drinking alcohol prior to driving and not being too tired to stay focused really does help.

And the same case can be made for dieting. Dieting is more than something you try for a couple of weeks every now and then. Dieting is changing the perspective you have on food. For example there is no such a thing as good foods and bad foods, but there is something that is called moderation. And it means that if you know you should cut out sugar and fat, and then avoid eating huge portions of anything that contains a lot of refined sugar and a high amount of fat.

It won't get you very far to start on a frustration diet that demonizes chocolate and burgers! You should be able to adjust to a healthier burger, though. Like not buying a burger, but trying to make your own, buying a lean cut of beef and having the butcher grinding it for you. Dieting and healthy life style is not as much about giving up on foods we love, but on making choices that are sustainable for long term – for a life time actually!

Why Diet Plans Fail

The first reaction of most people who discover that they’ve put some weight on is to eat less food. It sounds simple enough and reasonable. Since food is what got us into trouble it follows that eating less of it will make everything right again. Nearly every diet or eating plan in the magazines or on the Internet says pretty much the same thing: eat less food. Therefore the answer to this problem is very simple and handy. Sure, going with less food than usual is a challenge, but it also carries with it a sort of expiation feeling.

Unfortunately for those who hope that lowering the food intake would help them lose weight, this doesn’t work. Over the thousands of years of evolution the human body had to face starvation many times and had to find ways of surviving. We are the offspring of those who managed to survive periods of starvation by coping with the lack of food. Therefore, a simple decrease in the volume of food is not going to make a big difference because the body will simply compensate for it by lowering the amount of energy produced and limiting the capacity for effort.

The best way to reach your weight loss goal is to work around this defense system by eating smart instead of eating less. Overweight people and thin people eat roughly the same number of calories per day because they share the same required amount of food. However, overweight people eat far more fat than thin people, who seem to prefer complex carbohydrates that are easily broken down and metabolized by the body. This is the biggest difference between the two groups and the best point to start when considering what and how to change in your eating patterns.

Good dieting always takes time. The excess weight was not accumulated over night and will never go away in a single day. Every year hundreds of thousands of people are searching the Internet and reading magazines in order to get dieting tips and to find the modern Holy Grail: a pill that can make fat disappear in an instant. Well, maybe this is an exaggeration, but you get the idea. You have probably encountered by now a lot of advertisements promising such amazing results with the help of some quasi magic ingredient or other. And you probably know that losing weight doesn’t work like that.

The only way to lose weight for good is to avoid eating foods that are rich in fat and to exercises on a regular basis. Dieting without exercising is pointless because all the weight lost by eating less food will come right back in the following months. The sedentary lifestyle most of us lead is one of the causes behind the recent increase in the number of overweight people around the world. Cars, office jobs and foods rich in fat have brought us an unforeseen problem because the easy modern life has a price tag, just like everything else.

Food Addiction : Why and How to Break It

Everyone from time to time gets a craving for a certain type of food. Sometimes we just crave something to eat. No real reason, other than to eat. Sometimes this can be because you are bored, or because you seem something suggestive about food. How many times have you seen a television commercial advertising burgers and it made you want one? This is healthy. We all do it. Hell, I'd say that we probably do this several times per week. Did you know, that you can be addicted to food? I know that sounds a little weird, but it is true. How can you tell if you are a food addict? Sometimes it might not be as easy as you think.

There are many things that might come in your way of knowing if you are a food addict. You might be depressed or in an emotional downward spiral that will tarnish your ability to see what is going on. Over a period of time, you will be able to tell if you have an eating problem. If nothing else, you will see it in your waist line. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out.

What foods are addictive? Well, that is a hard answer. There is no hard answer on what is addictive. It is like saying what is more addictive, beer or whiskey. Though there are a few foods that are extremely addictive.

• Caffeine:

We all know that this is addictive. I'm sure if you are a coffee drinker, you know how you get the shakes in the morning if you don't have your coffee. Is coffee addiction bad for you? It depends on how much that you drink. If you are drinking a few cups a day, I don't think that it is harmful. If on the other hand you are drinking several pots per day, you have a problem. Even though it is addictive, you can control the amount that you consume. Unless you have a very addictive personality. If this is the case, I would suggest that you avoid coffee and other caffeine containing products all together.

• Sugar:

This is addictive. We try not to think of it as being so, but it is. It is addictive because of the jolt of energy that it gives us. If you haven't had your daily truck load of sugar and you feel tired, worn out, cranky, you are going through withdraw. Did you know that heroin addicts that are going through withdraw consume large amounts of sugar? It is said that sugar helps ward off the cravings of heroin. Sugar is one of those things that is hard to avoid. The best thing that you can do is avoid candy and other sweets. You will digest some sugar, but if you avoid those things, you will cut out a big portion of your sugar consumption. You should also avoid sodas. They are loaded with sugar.

• Carbs:

This is one thing that people will get frustrated at me over. I do think that carbs are addictive. For the same reasons that sugar is addictive. The best thing that you can do is avoid eating too much bread and pasta. That is the best way to avoid getting addicted to carbs.

I'm not saying that if you are addicted to carbs you will be like a junky. What I am saying is, that you will become dependent on them. I think that many people are addicted to carbs and don't know it. It isn't something that we think about when it comes to addictions. What should you do if you are a food addict? If you can control it, you should do your best to do so. If you are the type that has a strong will, it shouldn't be too hard.

The problem is, most of us don't have a strong will when it comes to addictions. We are a race of addicted creatures. I'm beginning to think that most of us are addicted to something. No matter if it is coffee, cigarettes, booze and so forth. If you don't feel that you can control it, you need to go to your doctor.

You need to tell him what is going on. Don't be ashamed to talk to him about it. You should be more ashamed of yourself if you do nothing about it. After you talk to him you should look into finding a support group for people who have food addictions. Your doctor will probably point you to a therapist. The therapist will know of a support group you can attend. If you aren't to point that you can talk openly about such a thing in person, you can find support groups online. They are free to use, meaning they don't charge any money. You will begin to find out what treatment and other things are available. These are people who fight what you are going through every day.