The No 1 Reason Why Most Diets Fail & What to Do About It

How many times have you tried to diet/lose weight in the past?

How many times have you had some initial success only to fallshort of your goals?

How many times have you achieved your initial goals, only to seethem fly away faster than you were able to enjoy the fruits ofyour labour?

Why does this happen?

In most cases, the answer is simple. You've failed one test... This is a difficult test. This test I like to call consistentpersistence.

Sometimes, you will be missing other essential components. Youneed to also include a variety of other things that will makethe consistent persistence useful. If you are consistentlypersistent in doing the wrong things, you will still fail. Sobefore we get in to the final key, let's review the otheressential components.

Successful dieting and or weight loss should always be gearedtowards a total lifestyle change that you intend to be permanent.If you cannot healthily sustain the changes for an indefiniteperiod, it probably isn't the right diet for you. Reasonableexceptions would include medically necessary emergency weightloss, with a view to changing the program once the crisismanagement was concluded.

If you are trying to lose weight, you should have a goal ofmaintaining that weight loss for at least five years. How manyof the fad diets out there today could withstand a five yeartest? Not many.

With the diet changes (that can be maintained for five or moreyears in a healthy fashion), it is essential to increase yourenergy expenditure.

You can increase this energy expenditure with a variety ofstrategies. Some of those include supplements that boost yourmetabolic rate. As we have seen with the ephedra issue, it isn'talways the safest choice. A safer way is timing your activity toboost your energy expenditure throughout the day. One of thoseways is to exercise early in the morning before eating, and thenwaiting for a period of time after having concluded your exercisebefore you eat. If you have blood sugar regulation difficultiessuch as diabetes or hypoglycemia, this may not be the route foryou to take.

Additionally, because your body will accommodate to any exerciseregimen after a period of time, you will need to vary yourprograms.

Water consumption at adequate levels is a must in any successfulplan. This will help to wash away the waste products and toxinsthat the body will release as you burn away the fat (which doesstore some toxins).

Adequate supplementation with good quality vitamins and mineralsis also very important so that your body has the micronutrientsit needs to drive its metabolic processes.

Ensuring that your body does not think that it is in a state offamine is also important. While it is a good idea to decreaseyour overall caloric intake, you want to make sure that you feedyou body on a regular basis, so that it knows that food is stillavailable and is coming soon. Six small meals a day is generallya good idea. Your choice of calorie sources is also important. For many health reasons, it is good to avoid highly processedproducts. Vine ripened, organic produce is also a great idea.

Another way to help yourself succeed and give your body a greatervariety of micronutrients and enzymes is to eat a large varietyof foods. Our bodies haven't yet really adapted to the advent ofagriculture, let alone a few monocrops. Variety, variety, andmore variety is a great idea.

Ensure that your rest is adequate and of good quality. If you donot rest adequately, all of your body's processes can beadversely affected.

Take time for yourself. Meditate or pray. This will help you onso many different levels that there isn't enough time or space togo into it.

Set yourself reasonable, attainable goals with specific timeframes. If you don't achieve them, reset the goals and reviewyour plan. Maybe the goal was unrealistic or the the plan wasfaulty. Entertain both possibilities. If you don't know how totell, enlist professional help.

Measure your progress. Measuring in inches and energy is abetter way to evaluate how you are doing rather than by pounds. Also very useful and a good measure of health factors, is torecord how your body fat percentages change (for better or forworse).

So now you have the basic principles down. While a three monthinterval is a great way to look at progress points, if you stopthere, you have failed. You need consistent persistence. Atevery goal point, re-evaluate your plan, refine it, work it, andthen repeat the process. If you need a holiday from yourroutine, schedule it, don't improvise or you are likely to fallout of the routine and have a difficult time getting back intoit.

Work it, re-evaluate it, measure your progress, and repeat.

Consistent persistence is the key to your success. This successmust also be built on sound principles and be realistic,sustainable, and varied.

Don't let yourself be discouraged, keep at it and fight tomaintain your consistent persistence because this is wheresuccess lives.

The information contained in this article is for educational purposes only and is not intended to medically diagnose, treat or cure any disease. Consult a health care practitioner before beginning any health care program.

Emily Clark is editor at Lifestyle Health News and Medical Health News where you can find the most up-to-date advice and information on topical health matters.