“Diets” fail because they thrive in a land of deprivation. When you think in terms of adding good things to your life and your plate you can live a full, abundant, and healthy life without deprivation.  Restricting your food intake is a surefire way to slow down your metabolism and gain weight. Make sure you are eating enough to keep your metabolism active.

It’s tempting to skip meals and eat very little when you are feeling desperate to lose weight, but this will only make things harder. When you restrict your diet too much your body goes into “starvation mode”. You metabolism slows to a crawl and your body will do everything it can to hold onto any calories you do eat and will store them as fat. You’re body can’t distinguish between your latest fad diet and an external famine. When you eat too little, evolution has trained your body to react by going into self-preservation mode conserving energy and calories until the famine passes.  So while you’re trying to lose weight, your body is trying to make sure you will survive a famine that doesn’t even exist.

The first thing you can do to aid your weight loss efforts is resist the urge to starve yourself and concentrate on modifying your behavior instead. Experts agree that anything below 1,200 calories a day is dangerous. Rather than obsess over calories, focus on improving, not limiting, what and how you eat. When you eat well, your body responds by perking up and getting energized rather than going into a sad and lonely state of starvation.