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Family and friends, online weight loss communities, and diet buddies can help you when you're tempted to ditch your healthier diet and exercise program.
What type of support, and how much, do you require? Everyone needs some cheering on to succeed, especially when the initial enthusiasm for changing bad habits begins to wane. How much time will you devote to food preparation? If you hate to cook, or have limited time, you'll need to simplify the preparation of healthy, fresh, and lightly processed foods. Do you prefer to eat three, five, or eight meals a day? Once you determine your desired eating schedule, divide your calories accordingly. In order to design your own diet, Bauer and Jones advise asking yourself the following six questions: Jones says dieting takes more than willpower, and that people who successfully lose weight and keep it off have simply discovered which approaches work for them and their unique personalities. "Our personality explains why some approaches to weight control work, while others fail." Jones, RD, co-author of What's Your Diet Type? Use the Power of Your Personality to Discover Your Best Way to Lose Weight. "Knowing who you are and what you need is the most important information you can have when it comes to losing weight, eating healthy, and changing your lifestyle," says Heather K. Dieter, Let's Get Personalīefore you begin designing your own diet plan, some self-reflection is in order. "We know from research studies that almost any plan that reduces calorie intake results in weight loss, regardless of whether it's high-carbohydrate, low-carbohydrate, high in protein, or low in fat."īut here's the rub: Weight loss won't last unless you change your eating and exercise habits for good in a way that meshes with your food preferences, schedule, and lifestyle. "One diet is not necessarily any more successful than the next," says Joy Bauer, MS, RD, author of Your Inner Skinny: Four Steps to Thin Forever. Even a slight decrease in calories, preferably on a plan that meets nutritional needs, is all it takes. If you bristle at the thought of complying with someone else's idea of how you should shed pounds, the good news is that you don't need weeks' worth of expensive prepared frozen meals or a militant eating and exercise program to drop the weight.
The Best Diet: The One That Works for You
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But they don't adequately address personal eating styles, family and work schedules, or exercise preferences.ĭo you crave a diet that caters to your unique needs, instead of a cookie-cutter formula from a book or diet guru? Here's how to personalize an eating plan that helps you shed weight and keep it off for good. Prescribed diets plans, such as Jenny Craig, The Zone, and The South Beach Diet are wildly popular, and often quite successful, at least in the short term.