Diets that Work

Diets that work have 2 components to them:

#1. You have to enjoy what you're eating and be satisfied (not hungry). Enough so that you will stick with that way of eating over time.

The problem with most diets based on deprivation is that sooner or later your resolve or will power lessens. Then you go on an eating binge or quit the diet altogether.

#2. The quality of the food that you eat.

Eating healthy and nutrient dense food that you enjoy will keep you satisfied. As I tell my coaching clients, when you eat in this manner you have no need to "binge" or go off your diet.

What Diets that Work should Provide

Diets that work can provide you with

a consist energy level
a comfortable and satisfied feeling after eating (not bloated or hungry)
good health
a minimum of body fat.

Too often people think of their diet plan in one context only - losing weight. You are probably familiar with the concept of dieting and focusing on the number shown on your scale.

That is a poor way to approach your diet program. Weight is just a number and if you get caught up trying to do nothing other than make the number go down, you are making a mistake. A better numerical measurement is what happens to your waist size.

It's entirely possible (and not unhealthy) that when you start eating a healthy diet and exercising, that you will lose inches and gain weight. Muscle weighs more than fat!

Your goals for your diet and exercise plan should be to:

lose fat
feel better and
become more healthy.

If you are overweight, you will come back to where you should be over time. Just don't be impatient and worry about what the scale shows every morning.

Know your Type

Another component in eating so that your food benefits you, is knowing your metabolic type. We all have our own unique make up.

You may be a protein type, carb type or a mixed type. This is one reason all the Diet Books that are sold as the next great program work for some and not for others.

A carb type that tries the Atkins diet probably won't do as well on it as a protein type. The same would hold true for a protein type that tried a vegetarian diet.

I am a mixed type and can eat proteins or carbs. Either one will leave me satisfied and feeling good. I do much better if I eat one or the other at a meal. Combining a "starchy" carb with proteins doesn't work as well for me.

You might want to monitor how you feel after you eat. There are many theories, experts and so on when it comes to nutrition, but your body knows best what works for it.

So listen when it is telling you something.

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