Top 10 Tips for Choosing a Successful Diet Plan

Going on a new diet usually ranks about as high as going to the dentist.

You know you need to do it. But you procrastinate because your past experiences have been so unpleasant. Even torturous.

But there's one big difference between going to a dentist and going on a diet. The results from the dentist usually last.

So why don't the results of a diet usually last?

Because you have to eat several times every day. So if the only way to keep the weight off is a diet that seems as torturous as a trip to the dentist, is it any surprise most of us fail repeatedly?

I believe you'll have a greater chance for long-term success if you enjoy your weight loss program.

So here are my top 10 tips for choosing a successful diet plan:

1. You Have to Be Able to Live With Your Diet And Have a Life With It.

This is absolutely the most important tip.

If your diet seems like torture, if the food gives you no pleasure, if you're making yourself and everyone around you miserable, then you'll have trouble losing all the weight you want and keeping it off.

You have to make long-term changes in your eating habits to succeed with weight loss. So whatever you do to lose weight initially should be similar to how you keep it off.

That means you have to eat foods you enjoy. You have to be able to socialize at food-based events. You have to be able to enjoy life.

2. You Should Lose No More Than 2 Pounds a Week.

Sometimes, you may lose a little more at the beginning. But week-to-week, 2 pounds is enough. Anything more is unhealthy.

3. Your Diet Shouldn't Be Extreme in Any Way.

Unless your doctor advises you otherwise, it's unhealthy to eliminate entire food groups. A balanced diet provides vitamins and minerals to keep you strong.

So skip the diets with low-carb, all grapefruit, or whatever the latest fad is. Extreme diets usually don't work. At least not for very long.

4. You Should Have Minimal or No Hunger.

If you're losing only 1 or 2 pounds a week, you shouldn't experience tremendous hunger. Not if you plan your meals and snacks correctly.

5. You Should Have Lots of Food Choices.

There's no reason to restrict the kinds of food you eat week to week. I've never understood plans that say in Week 1, you can only eat these 10 foods. In Week 2, you can add another 5 foods. But if you gain weight, go back to Week 1.

If your diet doesn't work with every food from Day One, it's probably not going to work. Period.

6. You Should Be Able to Enjoy the Holidays.

If your diet doesn't build in holiday eating, you're going to do it anyway. You'll just ruin your diet.

That's why so many people start diets in January - after the holidays. Trouble is, the holidays always roll around later in the year. So you need to have a way to handle them.

7. Your Diet Has to Allow for Moments of Weakness.

Perfect diets are for perfect people. But there are no perfect people. So a perfect diet is destined to fail.

8. You Shouldn't Have to Exercise with the Diet To Lose Weight.

I'm not saying you shouldn't exercise. We all know exercise is healthy and it makes you feel good.

But the benefits of exercise should be a bonus. Not a necessary part of a diet plan.

After all, what if you become unable to exercise for some reason?

Or suppose you stop losing weight on your diet plan and you haven't reached a reasonable target weight. If the only way to start losing again is to exercise more, then the diet's not working.

9. You Should Get All the Information You Need When You Start the Diet.

If someone sells you a diet and you have to go back week after week to get more information, they're just trying to make money off of you. There's no reason why Week 1 should be substantially different from Week 9.

And when you pay your money, you should know what the entire diet system is about. How else can you evaluate if it's going to work for you?

10. You Should Control the Diet.

The diet shouldn't control you. By this, I mean that your diet should meet your needs and wants.

Strict rules just increase your chance of failure.

For example, if you like to snack in the evening, but your diet eliminates eating after 7PM, how are you most likely to fail on your diet?

That's right. By snacking in the evening.

But everyone has different needs and wants. So you have to be able to customize a diet to meet yours. Then you're more likely to succeed.

And of course, before starting any weight loss program, you should see your doctor to make sure your diet is right for you.

Best Weight Loss Programs - Tactics That Work!

Looking to lose weight and want to find the best solution? Have you tried every trick in the book and still struggled to lose those unwanted pounds?

I have been in your shoes. I know how it is to exercise regularly, eat right and lose most of the weight, but it's hard to lose those last few stubborn pounds. It's possible to break past this barrier, and I will teach you how.

For starters, I don't want you to make dramatic changes in your lifestyle. Instead, I want to to improve on some of the things that you are doing already. It's hard to introduce new habits, and a a lot easier to change or modify existing ones.

That's exactly what my 12 step solution is all about. Try these simple and effective tactics to supercharge your weight loss efforts. Do the best you can and don't try and do it all at one time.

1. Become more positive and receptive to new weight-loss ideas. Because permanent weight-loss success begins not with the measuring cup but the mind, take a minute to explore your reasons for wanting to lose weight. Just fitting into a smaller dress size is not enough. What then? That's when the weight creeps back. A healthy weight should be a part of your mindset. It's not just about looking better or fitting into smaller clothes but about being healthier and maintaining a healthy lifestyle of the rest of your life. This is easier said than done. It takes some practice. Ask yourself WHY do you want to lose weight? Can you zero in on a better reason than a smaller dress size? Sure, you want to look good, but you want to feel good, too, right? That is what will keep you motivated for a lifetime.

2. Write everything down. Take a journal and make a note of how much you exercise, what you are eating, your successes and your failures.Write down what you eat, and check it against a calorie counter every night for the next two weeks. For many people, this is all it takes to wake up and reverse a lifetime of bad habits. This may sound silly but it's one of the best weight-loss tactics in the world. I have heard several instances where clients eat a healthy salad but sprinkle itwith so much dressing that you end up with a 500 calorie meal. Once you start seeing how many calories there are in what you're eating, you'll know which foods to cut back on or eliminate.

3. Become more active. This is my favorite tip. Exercise is the single strongest predictor of you ability to lose weight - and keep it off. Yes, exercise burns calories, increases your metabolism and energy, and develops lean muscle mass. But just as important, exercise catapults your self-esteem, which makes you more likely to do other things to take care of yourself, like eat less. Get moving means strength training AND aerobic conditioning.

4. Resist that first bite especially for the foods you love. You've heard it before: everything is okay in moderation. But face it: there are certain foods you simply can't eat moderately. If one cookie or a handful of chips is never enough, it's best just to avoid these foods altogether. If you've spent your entire adult life trying to eat a little of certain foods and failing, that is your signal to just forget it and don't even take a bite.

5. Drink more water. Most people complain "I hate water." "It's soooo boring. There's no taste!" "I can't drink too much or I'll waste my day in the bathroom." "I know I have to drink more water. I just keep forgetting about it." You know you need at least 8-10 glasses of water a day. You need to understand why water is so important. Yes, it fills you up. It controls your appetite. Did you know that it also aids in metabolizing fat? your liver is busy metabolizing fat and ridding your body of toxins. Water helps to get rid of toxins. If you're not drinking enough water, you have more toxins in your body, compromising the liver's ability to metabolize fat. You need water on hand for fat metabolism.

6. Reduce 100 calories from your diet every day. Make a commitment to cut 100 calories a day from your diet and replace it with an activity that burns 100 calories. It's easier to pinpoint the 100 with the journal I talked about earlier. If you did nothing else, you'd lose 10 lb. at the end of a year. A few activities that burn 100 cals are 1/2 hr. of walking, 20 minutes of swimming, or even dancing around your living room.

7. Eat fruits and vegetables every day. These have a powerful effect on sugar cravings. Plus, they're low in calories, fill you up with fiber, and pack a powerful nutritional punch.

8. Start training with weights. More muscle means more calories burned, even at rest. The key to permanent weight loss.

9. Eat more fibre. Fiber-rich fruits and veggies are great nutritional fare, since they fill you up without adding too much fat or too many calories. But increasing fiber intake could actually reduce the amount of calories absorbed by the body, too.

10. Spread your calories out over the course of the day. The typical American eats light during the day, and heavier at night. Yikes! By the time you get to dinner, your metabolism has gotten sluggish, which means a greater number of calories will be stored as fat. It's even worse if you're not active after dinner. Eat larger meals during the day, and have a light dinner.

11. Change Your Shopping Style When I go grocery shopping I can take one look at someone's shopping cart and make some basic assumptions about their lifestyle. If you want to lose weight your grocery shopping habits must improve. Thin starts at the grocery store. Before you hit the checkout lane, review your selections and dump any sugary, fatty treats and snacks. Your family may complain but they will get used to it.

12. Mix up your workouts. Crosstraining is the key to success. It is said the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and yet expect the same results. The same applies to fitness. You can't expect to do the same exercise, at the same intensity week after week and continue to see results. The body must be 'shocked' to respond with results. As long as the exercise is unpredictable and varied or manipulated every two weeks you will continue improving and losing weight

Weight Loss Diet Plans

A judicious blend of healthy eating, balanced nutrition and regular exercise is the key to most successful weight-loss plans. To make your long-term weight loss plan a success, you should follow a healthy lifestyle by eating nutritious foods and engaging in physical activity, alter the way you think about food, and pay attention to reasons why you eat.

You must cut down your calorie intake to lose weight. This is possible without having to eat less. Just substitute the high-calorie ingredients with low-calorie versions of your favorite dishes. The water and fiber present in low-fat fruits and vegetables will add volume to your dishes, so you end up eating the same quantity of food with fewer calories. Try sensible portion sizes and low-fat dairy and meat products.

Apart from helping you lose weight, these products can help to control high blood pressure. Any type of physical activity will boost your physical and mental health and help to keep the extra pounds off. And make it a point to plan your meals and snacks ahead of time.

You will find a number of popular diets which claim great success in helping you lose weight. The Zone Diet highlights lean proteins along with vegetables, fruits, and healthy fats. Starchy carbohydrates are not totally ruled out.

The Pritikin Diet focuses on fruits, vegetables, pasta, oatmeal, soups, salads, and low-fat dairy; limited amounts of low-fat poultry, seafood, and meat; few fatty foods and a limited amount of dry foods. Dr. Ornish's Eat More, Weigh Less says if you eat fat-free, healthy foods, you can feel full and still lose weight.

The Atkins diet prescribes that you take in 50-55% of your total calories from fat, 30-40% from protein, and 5-15% from carbohydrates. It puts no restrictions on meats, poultry, seafood, eggs, cheese, butter, cream, oil, nuts, some non-starchy vegetables, and artificial sweeteners. The South Beach Diet lays emphasis on a balanced eating plan of ‘good' carbohydrates such as whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and ‘good' unsaturated fats.