Is it Necessary to go on a Diet to Lose Weight?

So many people get caught up in the idea that you have to go on a diet to lose weight, when this isn't always the case. You don't have to go from eating normally to suddenly eating only lettuce leaves and a weird assortment of fruits and vegetables in order to start shedding the excess pounds. Indeed, it is probably best not to, since this is hardly the recipe for long-term weight-loss success. To lose weight and keep it off, you basically have to be prepared to adopt lifestyle changes that will put you in control of your calorie intake; otherwise you may watch your weight continually fluctuate.

Of course, when you're desperate to lose weight, you want to establish in your mind a break between what you were before – unhealthy and overweight – and after – fitter, healthier and slimmer. Yet, making yourself try to follow a fad diet is hardly the solution, since most of the fad diets available are not particularly balanced and losing weight is clearly more than just being skinny and fitting into smaller clothes. You also have to take into consideration the health implications of going on a very restrictive diet and decide whether it's really worth the hassle.

After all, most people who go on a diet find that sooner or later they put the weight they lost back on. Indeed, in a significant number of cases, people actually end up heavier than they were before going on a diet. Clearly, this is not a predicament you want to find yourself in, because it's embarrassing and depressing to lose weight and gain it all back again. You might lose quite a lot of weight quickly when you go on a diet, but then you have to adjust to being slimmer and start eating in a way that will enable you to keep the weight off. Unfortunately, most diets do not prepare you for this.

Consequently, instead of going on a diet to lose weight, it is a better idea to make adjustments to your current habits in order to bring your calorie intake down and your calorie expenditure up. You don't have to swap your three decent meals a day for three bowls of soup – you just have to get used to calorie counting. No food is off limits, as long as you realise that some foods are more calorific than others and that you can only eat smaller portions of higher calorie options. You don't even have to feel hungry all the time, because you can still eat significant quantities of low-calorie foods.

This is helpful, because if you're not hungry all the time, you're less likely to crave high-calorie foods and succumb to the inclination to binge on junk food. It's not only your dietary habits that you have to pay attention to, though, since your activity levels will also determine whether or not you lose weight and if you can keep it off. The more active you are, the more calories you burn and this makes it easier when it comes to meal times, because you can put a bit more food on your plate and still lose weight. Ultimately, it's about getting the right balance between calories in and calories out – something which you need to do whether you're trying to lose weight or maintain.