Sidebar: Why I Don't Think Diet Plans Work

I should more accurately say: why I don't think diet plans work for most people.

While studies at the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) indicate that about 50% of people losing 30 pounds or more do so as part of a formal plan (eg Weight Watchers) - the overall numbers themselves are low [only about 5000 total ], indicating to me a high rate of failure no matter what plan is used, considering all the 1000's of people trying to loose weight.

I think diet plans fail for several reasons:

1) One size fits all.

While I would give all diet plans the benefit of the doubt and assume they are based on a nutritionally sound program, they cannot, by their very nature, adjust themselves to all the cultural, ethnic, regional, genetic, etc differences that abound in our society. So by their very nature, a diet plan must be somewhat "foreign" to every participant, and therefore untenable to most participants in the LONG RUN.

2) Dietary Limitations

Many diet plans limit the foods you can eat - there's low carb/ high fats, low fat, Mediterranean, etc. I was on Atkins twice, but it got to the point I would kill for a carb. I couldn't keep it up. Same with the low fat diet I was on, one day I had to have a milk shake. The next day it was sausage, and that was all she wrote.

Although the NWCR has studies showing that successful weight losers limit their food variety, I believe people in general need some variety in their foods or they can't stay with the program LONG TERM. In any event, I know I can't.

One other problem with these diets is that people on them (like me) think they can eat ALL THEY WANT as long as it's low fat, low carb or low whatever. The fact is, calories count.

3) Transition

In the end, as everyone knows, the number of people who can sustain significant weight loss over time is extremely low. I think one reason for this is #2 above - they just can't take it any more.

But another reason, I think, is transition from diet to "not diet". I know that when I hit a snag on my diets (like that milkshake) - I felt it was all over, the end, finished. Part of the reason I felt that way was because to me, a diet was something separate, something that had a beginning and an end, not something that was part of my life forever. What was I thinking? Was I thinking I could just go back to the way I was? Frankly, I don't think I was thinking much of anything - all I thought about was "losing weight", never once did I consider what I was going to do when I got there [a moot point, as it turned out].

Now I think differently, now I think that when I reach my target weight I had better be doing whatever it is I'm going to do for the rest of my life or I won't be able to sustain my weight loss for the LONG TERM. I think that too many people think their diet is over when they reach their target weight. But actually it's not the end of the diet, just the end of the beginning.