Isabella's Story- Why Diets Don't Work
Over time, you become frustrated and simply give up and go back to your old eating habits. Like Isabella, you endured the embarrassment of stepping on a scale in front of your peers, hoping that maybe this week you will have success. The most obvious conclusion for failure is that you did not follow the program closely enough. Maybe you did not have enough will power.
You see, there is a very powerful principal that the weight loss industry has never understood; when you use the scale as a tool to motivate your clientele, it only works as long as people are loosing the amount of weight they believe they should be losing. They either do not lose as much weight as they feel they should, or horror - actually gain weight. This trusted tool of the weight loss program backfires and soon becomes the greatest hindrance against success.. Dieters feel betrayed and their trusted friend, the scale becomes the foe. It cannot be trusted.
The most obvious reason diets cannot and cannot work is the fact that we are trying to cure or correct a chronic problem with an acute solution. Weight gain is a slow and insidious process that creeps up on us over the years (and for some, decades). Yet, when we decide to correct the problem, we generally look at the latest fad diet or the most recent best seller to help us lose the excess weight in a few weeks or months
The very phrase "going on a diet", reveals our greatest downfall - if you "go on a diet" to lose weight you are planning to "go off a diet" sometime in the future.
Weight loss programs can at best achieve modest short-term weight loss and over 98% of dieters will regain their weight and usually more. "Going" on a diet for eight to twelve weeks can in no way provide the answer you are hoping for - no matter which program you choose.
Dieting has become a hobby for some and an addiction for others. This is the one of the main reasons diets do not work. Do you even wonder what effects dieting have on the body? The muscles "go in hiding" thinking you are in starvation mode. Then when you "go off" your diet and revert to your normal eating patterns, your body produces fat and places it carefully into storage for the next starvation mode that is coming. It is as if the hand on your metabolic clock handle was cranked the wrong way. Soon the spring does not have the strength to bounce back. Not only do we gain more weight, but also our health is damaged by this vicious cycle of losing weight and gaining it all back .
What about Isabella? She has successfully lost the extra weight and through simple, yet effective, lifestyle changes learned through HeLP she has been able to maintain her weight and she has experienced the side effect of better health and more energy.
We encourage you to use NIDDK's (Weight-control Information Network) fact sheet located at http://www.niddk.nih.gov to help you make an informed decision about joining a weight loss program. Compare us to other programs and discover why Health eLifestyle Program is the right choice to regain or maintain good health with the side effect of permanent weight loss!
(Excerpts from Healthy for Life)
