Should you trust the latest diet products?
Wanting to lose weight can cloud people's judgement and so they trust anyone and anything that promises to help them shift those extra pounds. That means there is a steady stream of people willing to try the newest pills or fad diets like the lemonade diet or grapefruit diet, in a desperate attempt to lose weight.
When someone is choosing a diet to follow then the first criteria that most people look for is how much weight they are going to lose in the first week or so, that is an awful criteria to choose a diet based on! There is no point in being sucked in by promises of huge weight loss figures as it could be totally useless afterwards and might even get you to do things which are harmful to lose that amount of weight
You need to think about the long term with dieting, the first 2 weeks are important because that is when your body adapts to your new eating habits and when your motivation is the highest, but they are really just a small step in a journey which should last a lifetime. A good diet will give you slow but consistent weight loss, as well as teaching you at the same time how to make healthier choices when you come to eat, this means when you reach your target weight you will be able to keep eating healthy and nutritious food and maintain your weight.
If it is not going to do that then it is just offering you false hope for a bit so you can feel good that you are taking action, after a week or two of doing and eating strange things and losing lots of weight that is probably mostly muscle and water rather than fat, you go back to how you used to eat and balloon back to your old weight, but now fat replaces the muscle you lost. You really need to sit down and think about what a diet is asking you to do, what results other people are getting with it, and if it teaches you how to eat for the long term or not, before you part with any money and start following it. Make sure the diet is balanced as well, eating just cabbage soup all day every day may sound ok, but is it giving you the variety of nutrients your body needs to function effectively?.
When you have chosen a diet you are happy with then make sure you set small goals to help motivate you along the way, most people have one big goal instead which is not very motivating until you get close to achieving it. Have a reward for every 5lbs you lose, or maybe 10% of your overall target or something like that. That will be much more motivating so you don't quit when you come to the rough spots that every diet will have over time, when you are stressed and run down and just want to go back to how you used to eat.
When someone is choosing a diet to follow then the first criteria that most people look for is how much weight they are going to lose in the first week or so, that is an awful criteria to choose a diet based on! There is no point in being sucked in by promises of huge weight loss figures as it could be totally useless afterwards and might even get you to do things which are harmful to lose that amount of weight
You need to think about the long term with dieting, the first 2 weeks are important because that is when your body adapts to your new eating habits and when your motivation is the highest, but they are really just a small step in a journey which should last a lifetime. A good diet will give you slow but consistent weight loss, as well as teaching you at the same time how to make healthier choices when you come to eat, this means when you reach your target weight you will be able to keep eating healthy and nutritious food and maintain your weight.
If it is not going to do that then it is just offering you false hope for a bit so you can feel good that you are taking action, after a week or two of doing and eating strange things and losing lots of weight that is probably mostly muscle and water rather than fat, you go back to how you used to eat and balloon back to your old weight, but now fat replaces the muscle you lost. You really need to sit down and think about what a diet is asking you to do, what results other people are getting with it, and if it teaches you how to eat for the long term or not, before you part with any money and start following it. Make sure the diet is balanced as well, eating just cabbage soup all day every day may sound ok, but is it giving you the variety of nutrients your body needs to function effectively?.
When you have chosen a diet you are happy with then make sure you set small goals to help motivate you along the way, most people have one big goal instead which is not very motivating until you get close to achieving it. Have a reward for every 5lbs you lose, or maybe 10% of your overall target or something like that. That will be much more motivating so you don't quit when you come to the rough spots that every diet will have over time, when you are stressed and run down and just want to go back to how you used to eat.
