Ten Reasons Why Most Diets Fail

These 10 Things are Why Most Diets Fail

Whether you want to lose a few pounds or a few hundred pounds, here are the common factors that often lead to ‘DIET FAILURE’. But…there is hope. If you are forewarned you can be forearmed.  So put these ten items on your mental plate and start digesting them right now.

1.    Caving to your Craving! Fat loves sugar and sugary things are the downfall of many people.  Sugar is addictive!  Giving in to the sweet cravings is one of the main causes of slippages and failures in a dieting program. Make no mistake about it, sugar is the biggest contributor to weight increases. There are ways to curb this pitfall, chief of which is “DON’T BUY SUGARY SNACKS!” Ensure and insure your weight loss success by avoiding killer sugars.  Don’t have any in your house.  When you’re tempted, drink a big glass of water.  Football’s greatest Quarterback, Tom Brady of the New England Patriots credits ‘Water’ as one of the main reasons for his success.  Up to about 64 ounces a day is recommended for weight loss as well as increasing overall health. 

It's okay to have one once in a while, but don't eat the whole plateful

2.    Hanging out with the wrong Crowd! Seriously, if your group’s favorite pastime is grabbing the ‘BOGO deal’ (Buy One Get One) on giant sandwiches at Fast Food Paradise, you need to run with a different crowd. If your best pals are food junkies, it will be very difficult (actually almost impossible) for you to stay away from unhealthy foods.  If you are the only one in the crowd trying to diet, they may actually actively work against you and urge you to forget about your weight loss hopes for the night and join in on the gorge-fest.  Here’s the hard truth. You not only have to cut calories, but you may have to cut out these friends – or at least eliminate going out for pizza, chicken, and burgers with them.  

This is not a real coupon, don't use it.  Even it if were real, don't use it unless you plan

 on chopping these mammoth beasts into quarters and sharing with seven of your closest buddies. 

3.    Reaching for the Moon!. While it is critical to set a goal, many people set the bar far too high.  If you need to lose 50 pounds, it might be wise to try to do it in stages.  It is far easier to lose ten or 20 pounds than fifty.  Set yourself up for success with a reachable target.  When you hit the mark, you can reset the goal and start all over again.  By reaching your first goal weight, you’ll be reprogramming yourself for winning and also increasing your confidence and self-esteem.

4.    Big Plates. The Bigger the Plate the Bigger the Waist.  One of the easiest ways to lose weight is to eat less!  That’s easy to say and hard to do.  It can be made a lot easier by simply using smaller plates. When you have a large plate, you tend to fill it to the maximum.  If you have a smaller plate, you can fill it to the brim, but you will be eating less.  If you go with smaller plates, after a short period you will be accustomed to consuming less food.  You can still eat your favorite things, but you will be eating less of them.  Weight loss is made easier by portion control, and the small plates will automatically help you size down both your food amounts and your waist size.

Fool Yourself.  It really works.  The same amount of food on a small plate

looks like more food.  If you practice using small plates, after a week or two

your mind gets tricked into believing it!

5.    Exercise.  While exercise is undoubtedly a much needed fitness component, it can be a serious detriment to your weight loss hopes.  How can that be, you ask?  Because it increases your appetite, I reply.  While exercise does indeed burn calories, sometimes it makes people so hungry they cancel out the benefits of the run, walk or whatever, by binge eating.  Moderate exercise will certainly help you, just don’t do too much of it, especially in the beginning stages of your weight loss adventure.

6.    Not Knowing the ABCs of Dieting. Many fad diets make extraordinary claims.  While these plans may work for some people, often they are expensive and ineffective.  Do some research before you buy any diet scheme, special foods or pills.   Years ago, one of my best friends, who was obese and had diabetes decided to purchase one of the dieting plans that sends you a 30 day supply of pre-packaged meals. Supposedly if you eat the food you will lose a great deal of weight. The day after my friend got the food he called me and excitedly said, “This stuff is great.  It tastes good.  I’ve got meals, desserts, snacks and even shakes.  By the time I’ve finished these healthy meals, I’ll probably have lost 20 pounds.”  I didn’t hear from him for a while so I called him and asked him how he was making out on the 30 day diet plan.  “I’m off it now.  It didn’t work.  I gained 10 pounds.”  After I questioned him further, he blurted out the truth.  “I ate all the food in three days.  Thirty days worth of food.  It cost me hundreds of dollars and I ate it in three days.” Don’t make a mistake with pills or plans.  Move into those waters slowly and carefully.  The best diet plan is one that will work and does not cost a lot of money – I think the small plate system is best and will work for anyone who gives it an honest try.

7.    Scrape off the Scales:  I’m not talking about removing the scales from fresh fish, but the scales from your bathroom or in your fitness center.  When I started on my quest to lose 40 pounds, I was devastated every time I scaled in and did not see a weight loss.  It got so I got on the scale 10 or 20 times a day.  I made a deal with myself that I would only look at the scale once a week.  After I did that, I was able to see the disappearance of a pound or two every week until I finished my plummet from 210 to 170.  That was four years ago and I slowly drifted back to 180, but I’ve maintained 180 for two years. More importantly my blood pressure and other indicators are all good. So the bottom line is don’t fret about the scale.  Check yourself once a week or so and keep your mind focused on the goal.  Tell yourself, “Eat Less – Lose Weight.”  That’s dieting by the letters, E-L-L-W!

8.    Why you eat. We have to eat to maintain life.  We do not have to over eat to stay alive, in fact if you want to stay alive for a long time overeating can be your worst enemy.  Some people over eat for social reasons.  They go with their pals to the All You Can Eat Buffet and literally have a contest to see who can devour the most helpings of meat, potatoes, beverages, and desserts. Pizza lovers buy a large pizza and eat the whole thing by themselves. Some people overeat for the sheer joy of it.  Others eat too much because they are sad and food cheers them up. Instead of focusing on the food for comfort, they need to refocus and reposition themselves to get comfort from their gradual reduction of food consumption and their controlled weight loss.

9.    Dangerous Road Ahead.  If you are reading this you may have already seen the signs of danger:  Perhaps, you’ve gone to the last hole on your belt.  You either need to buy a bigger belt or lose weight. Walking upstairs is a chore and sometimes you find that you’re out of breath when you reach the top.  For whatever reason you’ve decided to lose some weight.  The best way to do it is to plan ahead. Sometimes people don’t bother to pack a lunch for work and end up eating expensive, unhealthy fast food.  Skipping a good breakfast at home in favor of a few donuts and a coffee at Dunkin, is another way to rack up the pounds while losing weight only in your wallet.  Plan your healthy meals ahead of time. 

10.                      Food is Too Expensive:  Food is indeed expensive but if you plan your meals and eat at home, you will spend far less than you would by frequenting the pizza, burger, and chicken joints. In my youth I liked Chinese Food.  I spent a lot of money and time in places with names like The Dragon Lady, Kowloon, and more. Quite often I watched the workers and managers of these establishments take their lunch break.  Invariably they would sit alone at a table and though they could have anything on the menu, they always had one thing only – a big bowl of plain, white rice.  I also noticed that very few of these people carried ‘extra weight’. I learned something from that. I began to cook rice at home.  I grew to like it very much.  Plain white rice.  It is very inexpensive, healthy and filling.  You can’t go wrong if you use it as part of your diet plan.

No Diet Plan is perfect it is up to you to ‘perfect’ the perfect plan for you. If you take note of the ten concepts we’ve talked about, you’ll have a good chance to set a goal and reach it. Good luck.  I leave you with two words of advice.  SMALL PLATES.