Why are There so Many Diets to Choose From?

The only reason there are so many diets on the market is because there is a lot money to be made from them. Everyone is looking for a silver bullet, but there is no such thing when it comes to weight loss. The only way you're going to lose weight is by cutting your calorie intake and increasing your calorie expenditure, so that there is a big enough calorie deficit. Clearly, when you 'go on a diet', the focus is very much on what you're eating, rather than how much exercise you're doing, despite the fact that you really need to learn to balance your food intake with your calorie requirements.

Fad diets can help you lose weight, as if they're followed to the letter, you will end up reducing your calorie intake significantly. If your body has grown used to being fed with large quantities of junk food, of course, it's going to receive a shock when you only eat cabbage soup or cut out carbohydrates altogether. However, fad diets tend to be very restrictive or encourage you to do things which cannot be kept up in the long run. For instance, the 5:2 diet advocates that you fast for two days - with men able to eat 600 calories and women 500 calories on those days - and eating normally for the other five days. There are those who swear by the diet, but how long can you realistically keep it up for?

No doubt, many people who are following such a diet will grow disillusioned after weeks or months when they realise that having to restrict themselves in such a way does not fit in with their lifestyle. Yet, people continue to be drawn to such fad diets, because they hear positive things from friends and relatives and believe that they, too, could lose weight. If you lose a significant amount of weight in the beginning, then you probably think your chances of long-term success are great, but it often doesn't take long for bad habits to filter back in and your weight-loss plans fall by the wayside.

The fact of the matter is that fad diets work because they are all about getting you to reduce your calorie intake, but you really don't need a specific diet plan to do that. At the end of the day, you can take control of your calorie intake by making sensible food choices and eating less food. You can also give your weight loss a boost by getting more active and taking up a sport or activity that will increase your calorie expenditure if done on a regular basis. Unfortunately, people want to see results quickly and all of the diet plans available seem to promise so much that it is very easy to be taken in, but, ultimately, if you want to lose weight and keep it off you have to make realistic changes to your eating habits, rather than adopting habits that are just as unhealthy as the ones you abandoned to lose weight!