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But it is possible to make long-term weight loss a reality. Consider the following points carefully to get yourself in the right frame of mind:
How was your last attempt?
If you aren't learning from past attempts, you're likely to make the same mistakes again. You need to look at what has happened in the past, and think about why certain things may or may not have worked for you. Otherwise, you risk setting yourself up for failure and disappointment when you don't achieve your goals again.
Unless your eating plan helps you keep the weight off in the long term, you can't call it a success. If it hasn't helped you to keep the weight off for at least two years, then it's not successful. Yo-yo dieting is unhealthy. When you lose weight only to put it back on again within 12 months you tend to increase your initial weight. Any diet that encourages that should be avoided.
Your reasons for weight loss
Finding the right motivation is key to achieving your weight loss goals. Perhaps you're aiming to fit into a wedding dress or look great at a school reunion. But you need to think about what is going to happen after the event? If you have a short-sighted goal, then the results are also likely to be short term. And forget about doing it for someone else because you'll only wind up resenting them. You must want to lose the weight for you and it has to be about more than just changing your appearance.
For most people, that goal is realised slowly with a healthy eating and exercise plan so if your appearance is your only focus it can become quite disheartening. It's far better to have other goals as well like feeling more energetic and healthy.
Your attitude towards exercise
Sufficient exercise is vital if you want to keep the weight off after the diet. A Dutch study found that men on a 10-week low-kilojoule diet who also exercised increased their rate of fat metabolism, and were less likely to regain the weight than non-exercisers.
It's most important to maintain your body's muscle mass through exercise; not only for reasons of strength but also to help maintain your metabolism. We naturally lose muscle as we grow older, and because that can also happen through dieting, it's vital to make the effort to maintain it so that you have the best possible chance of a healthy weight in future.
A realistic goal
Unfortunately, people look at images of women in the media and think that what they see is not only desirable, but also attainable. That's just not realistic.
Think back to a time when you were at a weight you felt most comfortable with. The weight at which you were healthy but weren't having to live on lettuce leaves alone.
It's far safer to maintain a steady weight that may be a few kilos heavier than what you'd really like to be, than continually yo-yoing because the weight you're trying to stick to isn't where your body wants to be.
A solid routine
Whether it's job-related stress or relationship problems, if your healthy diet and exercise plan don't stand up to it, then they're not viable in the long term. You can't always get to the gym as planned because you might get sick or have to work late. And if getting up an hour earlier to fit more into your day becomes something you resent, you're not likely to stick with it. If you're going to do this for the rest of your life, then it's healthy to realise that whatever you're doing has to be enjoyable and that a few days off here and there, or a change in routine, really won't matter in the long run.
Your diet attitude
It is important that you work out a way to incorporate 'sometimes' foods like, chocolate and other sweet treats, into your lifestyle but that doesn't mean you should use them as rewards.
The important thing about adopting a healthy eating plan for life is learning to avoid emotional eating or having an emotional link to a specific type of food. Also, when eating out or going to a party, run through things in your mind first and formulate a plan.
It’s a way of life
For most people going on a diet, the focus is on losing weight rather than thinking about how they'll keep it off. They don't consider the fact that if they've lost the weight by being on a restrictive diet (one that they can't maintain in years to come) they'll only put the weight back on when they go back to their normal eating habits.
Remember, people who have long-term success lose weight by making changes to their eating habits and their lifestyle; changes that can be maintained after losing the initial weight.
