Dieting may make you feel like a failure if you
can’t lose weight or stay on your diet. Instead of blaming the diets, people who are
overweight tend to blame themselves. You may think, “If I could just stay on that diet, I would be thin.” This doesn’t take into account that your body has powerful regulators that affect your weight-things you can’t do anything about. And if you’ve dieted again and again without success, you can get into a cycle of negative thinking-and even gain more weight.
When you go on a diet, you deprive yourself of food. For many people, that means being
hungry most of the time and not having enough energy. It also can lead you to think about food all the time. So you’re much more likely to overeat when you finally give yourself permission to eat. It’s important to make
healthy eating changes that you can keep doing, instead of dieting.
Many different diets and programs promise
rapid weight loss but rarely work for the long term. Some might even be dangerous.
Weight Management: Should I Use Over-the-Counter Diet Aids?
Obesity: Should I Use a Diet Plan to Lose Weight?
But what does
healthy eating mean? Everywhere we turn, we get conflicting advice on what foods are good for our health. It can be hard to know where to start after you’ve decided to make a change.