What Is a Diet?
A diet is a systematic approach to eating and drinking designed to help people lose and control weight. Some diets encourage eating certain foods and discourage or even prohibit others. Other diets rely primarily on prepackaged meals, supplements, or meal substitutes. There are many factors to consider when choosing the best diet plan for yourself.
Before You Get Started
Starting a diet can be both a big lifestyle change and a big commitment. People on diets often fail because they aren’t prepared for what sticking to a diet really means. Consider the following before you embark on any diet:
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Commitment means commitment: A lot of people think they’re on a diet when they’re doing it only part-time. They’ll be virtuous for a day or two, or maybe only several hours, and then decide that all that good behavior has earned them a treat. The only way to commit to a weight-loss program is to follow it all the time. This is especially true in the first stages, when you’re trying to change bad eating habits.
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Honesty is the best policy: When you consider various diets, be straight with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses regarding food. Do you have an iron will, or do you easily give in to temptation? Is it easy or difficult for you to eat limited amounts at a sitting? Do you have a sweet tooth—which means that the prospect of eliminating desserts would be an unbearable burden that might derail your good intentions? Remember that even if you have cravings, there are diets that might work for you. However, you need to assess yourself without ignoring uncomfortable truths—otherwise, you may pick a diet that’s tough for you to follow.
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Don’t be too easily discouraged: Weight loss isn’t a steady and unvarying process. You might step on the scale one morning and find that the scale has either not budged or even risen a bit. Don’t be overly worried about what the scale tells you from day to day, as long as there’s progress over the long run.
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Your ultimate goal isn’t just losing weight: Your ultimate goal in dieting is to change your way of relating to food. If you start a diet with the notion that, as soon as you hit your desired weight, you can return to eating “normally”—i.e., the way you used to eat—you’re probably dooming yourself to gaining it back.
