Diet Success Rates: The Odds Are VERY Against You

Dec. 1, 2010 - PRLog -- Diet success is an elusive prize.  At least 85% of people who go on a diet fail, meaning they lose weight and regain it or they don’t stick to the diet long enough to reach their goal weight.  I’ve even heard clients who’ve tried other diets tell me that they were on such-and-such diet for a DAY and then quit!

But if 85% of people fail, then 15% of people succeed.  Diet success is possible, but it doesn't come from eating only cookies, drinking shakes, or cutting out carbs and fat.  True diet success comes from comprehensive lifestyle changes and attitude adjustments that support healthy living.

Certified Health Coach Belinda Kan says, "The body wants to be healthy.  When the body is healthy and happy, it is willing to shed excess fat when it receives the right balance of protein, carbohydrates, healthy fats, vitamins, minerals, water and fiber.  Very few diets, whether through regular food, products, pills or programs can deliver on the body's nutritional requirements in a small number of calories AND at the same time teach a person how to eat healthy and move their body in a way that supports health rather than causes injury."

What are the factors of successful weight loss?  The researchers at the National Weight Control Registry, a registry of people who have lost at least 30lbs and have kept it off for at least a year, have a pretty good idea:

   •   78% eat breakfast every day.
   •   75% weigh themselves at least once a week.
   •   62% watch less than 10 hours of TV per week.
   •   90% exercise, on average, about 1 hour per day.

Dr. Wayne Andersen, co-founder of the Take Shape For Life program for weight loss and weight control, studied the successful habits of those people registered with the National Weight Control Registry.  In addition to the habits listed above, he came up with a couple more key elements and created the acronym "BeSlim," which stands for Breakfast, Exercise, Support, Low-fat meals 5-6x/day, Individual plan, and Monitoring. 

All of these components must work together to make weight loss successful," says Belinda. "Whatever program or diet people choose, it must include these healthy habits as part of their weight loss AND weight maintenance plan to ensure both short-term and long-term diet success."

If you want to learn some easy and economical ways to start incorporating some of these healthy habits into your life, you can download a free guide called "How to Eat Healthier with Limited Time and Money" on Belinda's website, http://www.HealthyAffordableWeightLoss.com. There you will get information on healthy weight loss and weight maintenance strategies.

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Healthy Affordable Weight Loss is a website and blog whose mission is the cut through the confusion of diets and exercise and make the goal of losing weight for health reasons easy and accessible to people of every social class and of every lifestyle.