Extreme Diets Rarely Work by Paul Hargreaves

A good reason why most people cannot carry on with fad diets for much time is because the dietary recommendations are too complex to undertake. Over a sustained period of time, it is hard to maintain severe imbalances in your daily eating pattern, as people tend to get bored of eating according to such set rules.

People also tend to rebel against the banning of their favorite snacks. Before they know it, the desire for comforting snacks and meals turns into an overwhelming want. If we do not replace our old eating habits with sustainable, healthy patterns of eating, it is inevitable that we will go back to our old ways. That is why the failure rates for dieting runs at around ninety five percent.

If you love a certain type of food, for instance chocolate, do not try to stop eating it altogether or you will end up so miserable that you will start eating it for every meal. Just one square of chocolate can be snacked on slowly over a ten minute period, enough to satisfy those cravings. Also, that one chocolate square only has about one gram of fat and around eighty calories, small enough numbers that can be enjoyed as a treat in almost any nutritional plan.

So why cannot people just follow a regime from any of the thousands of diet books out there on the market? The answer is because everyone is unique, and what will work for one person will probably not work for the next.

Everybody's nutritional needs are slightly different. A diet book may give us a generalised plan to start out with on our quest for a nutritious diet, but it is trial and error to discover what our own particular body needs to thrive on.

A good idea is to keep a food journal. For example, some people can eat a meal of chili without any side effects, whereas just one spoonful of chili may send another person into extreme gastrointestinal distress. By keeping a journal, you will soon know which foods disagree with you, and you can learn to stay away from them. Something as obvious as making steady notes of your daily meal intake and noting any symptoms that arise can be enough to cure such things as indigestion, headaches or heartburn.