The Failure Of Dieting As A Solution For Obesity

One of the frustrations for many people suffering from obesity is that, before they are allowed to opt for gastric bypass surgery, their doctor will insist that they try to lose weight through diet and exercise.

Many people will have tried at least one diet and most will have tried several over the years without success. Indeed, right now in the United States alone about one in three adults is on some type of diet. For some dieting will prove successful but for the majority, while they may lose some weight in the short term, any weight lost be regained, often will a little bit extra.

But why do so many dieters fail?

One of the biggest problems is that dieters set themselves unrealistic goals such as losing twenty pounds in as many days.

Then, when they don't achieve this, they blame the diet and give up altogether or try another diet with exactly the same results. Losing weight gradually at one or two pounds a week is fine but anything more than this is simply not realistic or sustainable in the longer term.

A second problem for most dieters is that they don't organize their social life around their diet. That's not to say that you should put your social life on hold while you're on a diet, but ignoring you diet once a week when you go out for dinner with friends will have a huge impact on your diet. You should certainly continue to enjoy a normal social life but you need to include whatever you're eating and drinking as part of your diet. You may have to substitute fresh fruit for your usual carrot cake dessert but that's the price you must pay if you're going to lose weight.

A further difficulty for many people is that dieting can be expensive and requires a surprising amount of effort. In addition, most diets are boring. Preparing meals for a diet frequently means buying healthy food alternatives, which can be hard to find and are often expensive, and then spending an inordinate amount of time preparing a meal which more often than not leaves you wondering if it was worth all the effort. The limited choice of foods on offer for many diets also means that you soon get tired of eating the same thing day after day.

Yet another problem which many dieters encounter is that of calorie counting. Calculating both the calories you are eating and the calories you are burning up through exercise is not always easy and most people underestimate the one and overestimate the other.

At this point the reasons for the failure of most diets are probably becoming clear but there's one further reason which accounts for more failed diets that all of the other reasons put together.

Most dieters start out with the best of intentions and many research their diet thoroughly and even draw up a detailed diet plan. In ninety percent of cases however these plans are far too complicated and dieters simply don't stick to them!

There are hundreds of dieting programs available today from the Atkins diet to the South Beach diet but, quite frankly most of them are a waste of time and money. Dieting is not some mysterious science that requires you to consult an expert for advice on drawing up a diet plan. Dieting is simply a question of reducing your intake of calories and increasing your level of exercise to burn off more calories.

Reduce the quantity of food you're eating and/or replace high calorie foods with low calorie alternatives, take a reasonable amount of regular daily exercise and take things slowly and you will lose weight.

More articles about obesity:

Child Obesity Statistics - Child obesity statistic make very sobering reading and in many cases point to what is one of the most serious public health problems of this century.

Child Obesity Surveys - Child obesity surveys carried out over the past few years paint a very worrying picture of growth of childhood obesity not just in the West but across the entire globe.

Morbid Obesity Treatment - This article looks at the recently published guidelines from the American College of Physicians for morbid obesity treatment.

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