Fat Loss Diets - Tips For Dieting

by Christine Patterson

Losing weight is not only helps to improve the way that you look, but also it is important to improving your health and quality of life. By reducing your body weight by 10% you will substantially reduce your chances of developing diabetes, heart disease, and even joint problems. For a woman that weighs 165 pounds a 10% weight reduction would only be about 16.5 pounds. This reduction will help you feel better about yourself, it will help you drop a dress size or two, and it will help you enjoy your life.

Why Most Diets Fail

Most fad diets fail because they create negative biological effects within your body. Starvation diets that reduce your daily caloric intake too much will actually cause you to hold onto fat and extra body mass by lowering your rate of metabolism and by triggering your body's starvation defense mechanisms. Fad diets that reduce your food choices to only one or two food groups are also unhealthy, and they will ultimately fail because they starve your body by not providing it with adequate amounts of nutrients, minerals, and fats that it needs to operate and function properly. As your body runs out of the stored elements it will trigger a craving that will encourage you to eat foods that have the nutrients that it needs. These craving, unfortunately, will kill you diet as once you start eating the restricted foods you won't be able to stop.

In addition to nutritional concerns that fad diets pose, unbalanced diets also impact the way that you feel, and your ability to function normally. With too few calories, and too few nutrients your moods will swing to the dark side, and people will not want to be around you. This could negatively impact your ability to function at work, to socialize with others, or to take part in your family's activities.

Set Reasonable Goals

Now that you know that unbalanced diets, staving yourself, fad diets, and diet pills are not the answer to your weight issues, you are in a good place to start eating in a way that will promote a healthy weight, and that will still allow you to eat like a real person. When deciding to lose weight you should sit down with yourself and truly identify weight loss and fitness goals that are reasonable for you to achieve, remembering that not everyone is designed to be 110 pounds and a size 2. Your body type, bone structure and size, and your muscle mass will determine what weight you should be. As you start losing weight you will start to get an idea of what weight range you feel the most comfortable at, and most importantly which weight ranges that you feel the healthiest at.

Set short-term and long-term weight loss goals.

For example, week one I will lose 2-3 pounds (short-term goal), and by July 31 I want to be 20 pounds lighter (long-term goal.) This brings me to another important point, don' expect to lose 10 pounds overnight. The diets that claim that they can give you this kind of result are either lying to you, or they are putting your health at risk. The liquid diets that have become popular in the last several years that promise if you drink only their juice diet drink for two days that you will lose 10 pounds, are basically providing you with a 48 hour fast. While you may lose 5 to 10 pounds with this diet, it will be from the loss of water weight and the cleansing of the contents from your bowel and intestines, and not actually from losing fat.

Losing Weight Safely

Safe and healthy eating programs should provide you with an average weight loss of about 1-2 pounds per week. Weight loss at his rate is more likely to stay off, than weight that is lost at faster rates through unhealthy methods. You should also be prepared to hit weight loss plateaus. These plateau periods will be frustrating and they may make you want to give up, but don't. These phases are times that your body needs to readjust to your new body composition and metabolism rates. You may notice that during this time that even though you won't lose any pounds, you will see your body toning and firming.

About the Author

Christine Patterson is a health care professional with a background in weight management. For more tips for dieting, and improving your overall fitness level, visit my Fat Loss Dieting blog.

Source: www.goarticles.com