The Thinking Person s Diet

OK, think about this for a moment - food does not grab you and force you to eat it! Does that sound obvious? Well, in a way it is, but to hear some people talk you would be forgiven for thinking that food ties them down and then force-feeds them!

The problem is that your body knows how much food you need to eat and in what proportions. If you just follow along then you will stay at the same weight as you are or, if it is programmed in your genes, increase weight.

So, to lose weight you need to eat less food than your body needs but that goes against what your body wants and it is here that the problems start. Your body will do it's best to make you eat by whatever devious means it can; hence the feeling that sometimes it is not you that is in control.

The answer is to understand what is going on and know that the solution to dieting lies, not in finding some special food or fancy diet plan, but in determination to surmount the obstacles and eat less and thus lose weight.

Sounds tough but it's not all one-sided; there is a way to make this process as painless as possible. Calorie controlled diets which allow you a certain number of calories or a certain number of points each day are an easier way to cut down.

You eat what you like so long as you don't exceed a set number of points or a set weight of food (or however it's worked out) and you have freedom in what you eat within those limits.

The number of points is calculated so that you are getting almost - but not quite - the food that your body wants. So, although your body won't be satisfied at that, it's relatively easy to go along with it and be just a tiny bit hungry and survive the day.

Do this each day and slowly and surely your weight will come off. If you can exercise or, at least, push up your activity level, then the weight will come off faster.

Get to this stage and it is getting easier since you can see results and that makes it all the easier to carry on. Then, in no time, you will have lost quite a few pounds and be all the happier.

But, you have to think ahead again, if you go back to letting your body take charge things can go - literally - pear-shaped! You see, your body will make you eat more than you need so that it can put the weight you just lost back on! And how often do you hear people say that, for that is is exactly what happens!

Why? Well you body has your best interests at heart and tries as hard as it can to keep you at your old weight. It takes the diet as some form of famine and, once over, it gets you to gorge as much as you can to put the weight you lost back on.

So, remember, before you start that calorie controlled diet, what you are doing is for life, not for a few weeks or months. Make sure you can go onto a maintenance plan when you finish your diet to keep the weight off and stay at your new weight.

Calorie controlled diets seem to give good results so have a think about it and, if you are sure that you want to lose weight, then go ahead and make a start but remember that the diet you choose will be, in one form or another, for life.

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