Why Diets Fail (Because You're Addicted to Sugar) Read Online Free PDF Page A

measure used to determine whether a person is normal weight, overweight, or obese) than those who don’t. 3 Thisunderscores the futility of these quick-fix attempts. Diets, as we know them, just don’t work.
    It turns out that it’s the opposite of the quick-fix approach that seems to do the trick when it comes to losing weight and keeping it off. Studies suggest that people who lose weight gradually are more likely to sustain their weight loss. In one study, two weight-loss approaches were compared: one that lasted twenty weeks, and another designed exactly the same but that lasted forty weeks. Weight-loss techniques were introduced to the participants in the forty-week group at a slower, more gradual pace than the twenty-week group. The results showed that individuals in the forty-week group lost more weight and were able to better maintain this weight loss over time. 4 Why? These positive effects were most likely seen because people who lost the weight slowly were making gradual changes and easing into a new way of eating, instead of adopting the quick-fix mentality that is marketed all around us.
    Why does weight seem to stay off when it comes off more slowly? It may have to do with the fact that, psychologically and behaviorally, it is much easier to enact small changes over time than to try to change everything all at once. Suppose, for example, that you want to teach your dog to perform a complicated trick that contains several acts in a certain sequence—such as to climb up a steep incline, jump through a hoop, and then sit down. If you try to teach the dog all three steps at the same time, learning might never actually occur. Instead, your best bet is to reward the dog at first for simply climbing the incline, then only reward it for climbing the incline and jumping through the hoop, and finally only reward it for doing all three actions in order. It will take some time and patience, but this method will work. This approach is a psychological learning strategy known as shaping, which incorporates change slowly so that the subject can learn each step involved without becoming confused or overwhelmed.
    Similarly, when we make gradual changes to our eating patterns over time, we may be more likely to develop healthy eating habits and, as a result, lose more weight than people who attempt to make drastic changes to their eating patterns overnight. So, when you jump-start yourself into a new way of eating, trying to change all of your bad eating behaviors at once might actually sabotage you from the start.
    In order to lose weight and keep it off, long-term (lifelong) changes are needed. Although it would be great if there were a quick fix, as with much else in life, quick fixes usually only act as Band-Aids, temporarily alleviating or distracting you from the problem without actually eliminating it. For these and other reasons that will be covered next, to lose weight and maintain weight loss, you need to make a permanent change in the way that you eat, rather than going on a diet in the way that this term is typically used. Instead, diet should refer to the way you eat, now and forever. The simple truth is that you need to make a conscious decision to eat a certain way and continue to eat that way if you want to achieve and maintain weight loss—so from here on out, tell yourself that your diet is the way you eat all of the time , not just until you reach a fleeting milestone.
    The Problem with Diets You Have Tried in the Past

    How many different diets have you tried over the years? Why didn’t they work for you? What were the problems with each one? At the end of the chapter, we’ll ask you to make a list of the diets you’ve been on and note the reasons why they failed. Below are some common reasons why we abandon diet plans. We’re sure that some of these issues will show up on your list.
    PROBLEM #1: I’M HUNGRY!
    One common problem when trying to lose weight is that we often feel hungry. This is probably