Easy Weight Loss Tips

If you're an American, chances are you have been on a diet or some form of "easy weight loss program". And chances are you never reached your weight goal or, if you did manage to get into those size 10 jeans, you expanded right out of them again.

Millions of Americans are yo-yo dieters. Experts believe that as many as 95 percent of people who succeed in losing weight gain most, all or even more of it back. The problem of yo-yo dieting, or weight cycling in professional jargon, is far more than a cosmetic issue.

Regaining hard-lost pounds is embarrassing and depressing and can be a terrible blow to sell-esteem. It may also make it physically and psychologically more difficult to lose weight the next time.

And now there is evidence that years of weight cycling can damage health and shorten life. According to a recent study of more than 3,000 people followed for three decades, yo-yo dieting can as much as double the risk of developing and dying of heart disease

Does this mean it is impossible to lose weight and keep it off? Not at all. It simply means you probably tried to diet at the wrong time for the wrong reasons.

A growing number of weight control specialists believe that a realistic assessment of your "diet readiness" can significantly enhance your chances of lasting success, regardless of which quick or easy weight loss program you follow.

The doctor who directed the recent study said that too many people rush into diets under circumstances that make lasting success unlikely, a tendency he likens to trying to climb a mountain in a blizzard.

Diet readiness involves factors such as the dieter's state of mind, motivation, commitment and life circumstances, as well as attitudes toward exercise and the reasons for eating at various times.

Selecting the right reason for trying to lose weight may be even more important than choosing a diet. Many, if not most, dieters decide to diet for a transient or superficial reason, such as a desire to impress former classmates at a reunion, to be presentable in a swimming suit or to put an end to teasing about those excess pounds.

But lasting weight control entails an internal commitment to a new you and a lifelong commitment to a new way of handling food and to regular physical activity.

Successful dieting means abandoning the idea that if you fail to keep the weight off this time, you can always go on another diet.

Based on experience with hundreds of dieters at a hospital clinic, this doctor has devised a test to help dieters assess whether the time is right to try to lose weight. A "failing" score on one or more sections of the test does not necessarily doom a weight control effort, but it may make it much more difficult.

The test can help identify potential roadblocks to success so the dieter can work to improve before trying to diet. There's a reminder to potential dieters that losing weight involves working hard over a long period, learning to avoid or limit favored snacks, learning to eat a predetermined amount - which may mean stopping before you are full - and committing yourself to regular exercise, even when you are tired, bored or have other things to do.