In uncovering the top ten diets that work, I was also exposed to revealing insights as to why some diets work for some people, and not for others. The fact is that just about all diets “work” when it comes to some degree of weight loss. However, many individuals make the crucial mistake of picking a diet that sabotages their chances of success from the beginning.

1) The Diet Does Not Conform To Their Lifestyle

This is a mistake that the majority of dieters are guilty of. Before going on a given diet, or enrolling in a diet program, individuals should closely examine the requirements of the diet. After looking over the requirements, they should compare them to the realities of their lifestyle. As I researched the top ten diets that work, I found that each of them suited the lifestyle of a high percentage of people.

For example, if an individual has an occupation where they are constantly eating “on the run”, is it realistic that they will stick to a plan that features all prepared meals?

Probably not.

If a diet requires drinking at least 8 glasses of water a day, is it realistic to select it if you can’t make frequent trips to the bathroom throughout the day?

Probably not.

Eating preferences can determine how suitable a diet is for any given individual. If you refuse to each fruits and vegetables, a balanced and restrictive low calorie diet may be a self defeating choice. Inevitably, if an individual goes on a diet and will only eat some of the required food, they are doomed to be weak, tired, and miserable!

It is important that each dieter actually puts themselves in the mental position of actually being on the diet. Upon examining that realitiy, they may realize that a given diet program is not realistic for them.

Do you realise that currently American women are spending more than $40 billion dollars per year on dieting and diet related products? Other countries suffering from the current obesity epidemic such as the U.K., Australia, Canada, and Germany are also spending huge sums of money on the same.

When you consider the real risks of going on a diet it is hard to understand why modern women are ready to spend a small fortune seeking the body they crave. Then again, when you look at the scrawny anorexic super models and “media personalities” who stare out of magazines and newspapers at us perhaps it is easier to realise why today’s modern women are prepared to spend nearly the same amount as a bank in trouble demands from the government.

How many of you know that dieting can lead to eating disorders? Those of you that did can have a gold star. Those that didn’t had better pay attention!

If you go on a diet in an attempt to lose weight and you fail then you classify yourself as a failure. When you go on to a diet, the fuel that your body needs to function properly, FOOD becomes your number one enemy. The food that you like, cream cakes, chocolate, McDonalds are forbidden and the foods that you don’t like, rice cakes, low fat cheese are O.K. diet foods. A lot of dieters find that every encounter with food results in tension and stress. In an effort to reach their target weight the dieter is not prepared top stick by their diet. They adopt other tactics and maybe indulge in a bit of bulimia. Or when they look at a full length mirror instead of seeing “skinny Minnie” they see a little fat person and they welcome good old anorexia. Or they might think to themselves “Oh what the heck…” and then go on a binge eating session.

Of course, these are the extreme risks of going on a diet. However, other more common risks that occur include what happens to your body when you try to lose a substantial amount of weight in a short period of time. The heart of this risk isn’t with losing subcutaneous fat, (the pinch an inch fat) but with losing the fat which protects your lean organs such as your liver and kidneys. When this happens it puts a strain on these organs as they try to retain their normal function. Ultimately the dieter can suffer from organ failure. Imagine waiting for a liver transplant and some one asks you how you’re in this position. How stupid would anybody feel if the answer was “I overdid my diet.”

Diets which ban certain food groups such as low carbohydrate diets, nil fat diets, high protein diets etc are all unhealthy because they are depriving your body of the correct combination of essential food groups as are diets that prescribe 800 calories per day or 1000. A healthy diet typically requires 50% of your calories come from healthy carbohydrates, such as whole grains, vegetables and fruit. Similarly 20% comes from protein such as chicken, eggs, cheese and 30% from GOOD fats, mainly poly and monounsaturated fats but some saturated and fish oils.

If you deprive your body of carbohydrates you can actually promote malnutrition. If you go on a high protein diet you can stress your kidneys. A high fat diet can lead to heart disease. Whatever diet you follow, if it brags “lose a kilo a day” remember the initial weight loss will be mainly water. This in turn can lead to dehydration and ultimately muscle waste age. What do you need to help you burn fat? MUSCLE. No muscle equals negative fat burning.

No one who promotes diets informs you of the simplest fact of all, because if they did it would have a negative impact on their earnings. DIETS DO NOT WORK!

When you go on a diet you are cutting down the fuel your body needs for metabolism. (the number of calories your body needs to perform its everyday functions such as breathing, digesting food etc.) When this happens your metabolic rate slows down. (Therefore you don’t need as many calories!) You hit your target weight and you start eating normally again. HOWEVER you r metabolism is still running at its reduced weight. Guess what happens next? You got it! The excess calories you take in are stored as fat and then what happens? Have you got it? That’s right, it is stored as fat and bingo, and you now weigh more than you did when you went on the diet! Ah well, better go on a better diet this time! Guess what, the same thing will keep happening until you change your lifestyle.

Change your lifestyle! What do you mean? What I mean is changing the food that you eat. Cut out the unhealthy sugary, processed, trans fat laden junk that you have been eating in the past and start eating healthily. Don’t sit on your butt all day! Go out and EXERCISE. Start gently and gradually and build up to it. Also do a bit of weight lifting to build muscle. Remember what we said earlier on, muscle helps burn fat!

Don’t look at rapid weight loss, aim for a pound per week. If you don’t like weighing yourself measure your waist, and see how soon you can fit those great pants, skirt or dress you haven’t got in to for a couple of years. If you do weigh yourself do it at the same time on the same scales on the same day every week.

Remember an exercise regime plus healthy diet beats dieting every time (AND you don’t have to go hungry!!)

Finally, a word of caution. If you are seriously overweight before you do anything IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU SEEK MEDICAL ADVICE BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING.

We live in a diet crazed world. Despite the fact a large number of our population is dieting and focusing on weight loss, the obesity epidemic continues to grow.

The reason the problem is getting worse is because people are falling for diet scams. They switch from one top 10 fad diet to the next while they search for diet plan secrets that cure obesity.

The truth about dieting is something we don’t want to hear. It takes hard work and determination to lose weight and there is no magic fat loss pill.

The Truth about Top 10 Fad Diets

Not all diets are alike. Even the most popular weight loss programs like the South Beach Diet and the Atkins Diet end their similarities at the word diet. In fact, there are few diet plans available to help you achieve fat loss and improve your overall health.

Fad diets are spun off of research tidbits. Often times the top 10 fad diets have not even been tested. Worse yet, some diets have been proven harmful to your health. Most fad diets are simply scams intended to make money off of overweight, unsuspecting individuals. Sadly, many of them succeed.

Ultimately what happens when you follow a fad deit is that you’ll lose a few pounds initially, stall out when you reach a plateau, and start to feel deprived and hungry all the time. Eventually frustration wins out and you return to your old ways of eating what made you overweight in the first place. Because you feel deprived, you are more likely to binge on the foods you crave and gain back the weight you lost along with additional weight.

The bottom line seems to be: fad diets actually make you gain weight over the long haul. Bouncing from one top 10 fad diet to the next worsens the situation as your body adjusts and goes into starvation mode.

Total fasting, or ‘the starvation plan’, as the only weight loss strategy, is not the answer to your problem. Each time you diet in this way, you lose fat, water and muscle and each time you gain, you gain only fat. That’s why it gets harder and harder to shed the unwanted pounds.

The bottom line seems to be: fad diets actually make you gain weight over the long haul. Bouncing from one top 10 fad diet to the next worsens the situation as your body adjusts and goes into starvation mode.

The Reason Overweight People Turn to Top 10 Fad Diets

When people decide that they have had enough of being overweight, it suddenly becomes a top priority to lose weight. They want instant gratification and are drawn in by diet scams that promise fast weight loss.

Most people think that the more money they spend on a product, the better effect it will have on their weight loss program. The problem with these diet fads is that even if their weight loss tips do help you lose a few pounds in the beginning, you will not be able to reach your weight loss goal and maintain it.

Few diets actually focus on the healthy lifestyle changes that it takes to lose fat and keep it off.

The Truth about Common Sense Diets

The truth about common sense dieting is that the only way to lose weight, improve your health and improve your quality of life is to eat healthier foods and exercise.

A common sense diet details what to eat and drink and provides a “simple plan” for success. Knowing what key foods to eat and when, is half the battle for fat loss.

Starvation diets and over-exercising don’t work. They leave you feeling weak and deprived. Eating certain healthy organic and whole foods at the right times during the day, in large enough portions to feel full and satisfied is the key to weight loss and is the focus of healthy weight loss programs.

There are so many fad diets out there these days that attract people with there fast weight loss and celebrity lifestyle image. The fact is that nearly all of these diets only really offer short-term weight loss solutions and can be extremely unhealthy. Iv’e put together a list of 5 popular fad diets – along with reasons NOT to try them!

Detox Diet
Claims to lose a stone in 10 days, defeat cellulite, give glowing skin and no more bloating. This diet is meant to compliment other detox methods such as massages, colonic irrigation, saunas, fasting etc. Food such as fish, meat, eggs, dairy, wheat, salt, sugar etc are banned, while fruit, veg, beans, seeds, nuts are allowed. This results in a lack of nutrients, lowered immune system, a temporary weight loss, mainly water. It can lead to yo-yo dieting, nausea, sickness and headaches. It is said to causes food cravings, resulting in eventually giving up! It can also cause eating disorders and there is no good evidence of it actually working!

Low Carb / Atkins Diet
The aim of low carb diets is to force the body to use its own fat as its main energy source. This produces something called ketone bodies to fuel body parts that can not use fat as an energy source such as the brain and red blood cells. This puts you in a state of ketosis – resulting in smelly breath and side effects like fatigue and nausea. These diets do produce short term results, which actually come from loss of muscle tissue and water. They are not a long term weight loss solution and are unhealthy if sustained.

Starvation Diet
Starving yourself is one of the worst diets that you could try. Ok, you may initially lose a lot of weight but the effect this has on your body is drastic! You will be extremely lacking much needed nutrition and this will lead to fatigue, lack of sex drive and hormones, sleep loss, possible hypothermia, poor concentration and judgement, depression, anxiety, personality changes, social withdrawal, your metabolism will dramatically slow down, you will lose organ tissue and muscles, you can get shakes, feel the cold more, and feel very week. Low calorie intakes actually slow down weight loss.

Hollywood Diet
This is basically a 24 or 48 hour ‘Juice Fast’ where you eat no food in this time. This diet has the same cons as the starvation diet. You are really just losing excess water in the body with this diet and it does’nt last long, you will soon put that weight back on. It is expensive to buy the juice, around $25! You will get no protein or iron in the body, and will be taking lots of sugar and carbs. Tastes good at first but soon turns very sickly.

Cabbage Soup Diet
This is a 7 day diet plan which supposedly offers a fast weight loss solution. This is a very short term solution and is not sustainable so is’nt a viable option for long term weight loss. There are a few benefits to this diet which include fast weight loss, a healthy beneficial change from eating junk food, and research has shown that cabbage helps to prevent cancer. However, the drawbacks do outweigh these benefits somewhat significantly. The soup is high in salt, lacking in good overall nutrition – low in protein, calcium, essential fatty acids, high in sodium and MSG, requires much will power as the soup tastes very bland and is extremely repetitive, gives you gas!, and most of all this is not a healthy sustainable solution to long-term weight loss. This diet will most probably make you GAIN weight as it has a very low calorie intake and you can get bloated!

There really is no substitute for a healthy diet and regular exercise if you want to lose weight and live an overall healthier and more active lifestyle.