6 Factors That Can Hinder Diets

There's lots of diet plans on the market, you can see that from the supermarket or health food shop shelves. But many of them simply focus on the calories you eat, rather than looking at the other factors that are involved in weight loss.

The bottom line? No diet plan can really hope to be successful unless it accounts for all the issues involved in weight gain and weight loss.

What Factors Can Ruin a Diet?

Rather than simply trying to follow an off-the-shelf diet plan, consider a number of key factors that may be getting in the way of your diet plan working. It may save you a lot of time and money if you can get these sorted before you start, and will enable you to concentrate on losing weight!

Emotional Eating

So much of weight loss can be "in the mind". If you understand that you are in control of your food intake, then you can moderate your calorie intake. No bowl of ice cream ever leaped from the fridge and forced you to eat it!

You can begin to take control of your eating by understanding when and why you eat. Is it when you are bored? When you watch TV? When something upsets you? Understanding the emotions behind the eating will help you to take control of what and when you eat.

Balance Your Foods

Many people who are dieting think of certain foods as good or bad and thus try and avoid certain foods. The reality is that some foods are better for you than others, but what matters overall is that you eat a balanced, varied diet.

If there are foods you like that you know are fattening, then limit the amount you have, rather than trying to eliminate them which may you want them even more.

Dieting is Temporary, Eating Well is Forever

Diet plans that involve short-term calorie restriction can't go on forever. Similarly those that sell you their own, proprietary foods can never be more than a short term fix. It's much better to learn to eat well on a regular basis than to rely on prepared food and strict food plans.

You Can't Lose Weight Without Exercise

If you think you can lose weight without exercising, you are setting yourself up for failure. Why? Because while it's not impossible to lose weight without exercise, you are making it unnecessarily hard for yourself.

Exercise not only burns calories while you are doing it, but also revs up "your motor", increasing your metabolism (the rate at which you burn calories) twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Give Fat a Chance

Many diet plans aim to cut fat, yet for most people, fat is not the issue indeed, many fats are healthy, such as olive oil, or those fats found in fish and in nuts and seeds. Rather than worrying too much about fats, you would do better to look at how much sugar is in your diet. So take a look at the sugar content in the 'low fat' yoghurts and other foods.

Watch Your Drinks

Drinks are a dangerous source of extra calories. Not just soft drinks and so called fruit drinks (sugared water with a hint of fruit), but also fruit juice and sports drink. Obviously the other big calorie intake is alcohol - especially if you are drinking shorts with mixers or are drinking heavily.

If you want to lose weight, avoid all of these and drink lots of water to keep your body hydrated.

In Summary

Not everyone will have a problem with their dieting. Not everyone will see the above 6 factors and worry about them all. There are so many complex and personal reasons why we put on weight, that by making sure the above factors are something you can manage, you are already half way there to losing weight.