Besides emptying your pocketbook, the main problem with most popular diets is that they give you an excuse to procrastinate making the changes in eating and exercise habits that are required for permanent fat loss.

Any diet that results in a sufficient reduction in calories consumed will produce weight loss. And all one has to do to maintain the lower weight is to stay on the diet. In practice, however, diets tend to be so unpleasant, expensive, or boring that people soon quit and return to old habits. They tire of spending the money on memberships or prepared foods, feeling hungry, drinking the shakes, counting the calories, or attending the meetings. As old habits return, the extra fat returns also. After bouncing back to the same old weight two or three times, they often start to believe that it must be their "natural" weight, so they quit trying altogether.

Alternatively, permanent healthy changes in your eating and exercise habits can produce permanent fat loss, along with myriad other physical and psychological benefits. The purpose of this site is to provide you with information that will help you make these changes. This information is, for the most part, common sense, non-controversial, and supported by scientific research. It is also free.

Fat is but a collection of bad habits. Lose the habits, and you will lose the fat. One of the best ways to lose a bad habit is to replace it with a good one. Bad habits that produce fat include eating between meals; eating unbalanced meals; watching television; drinking sodas, alcohol, sports drinks, or fruit juices; eating at restaurants; ordering large portions, and then finishing them; eating processed foods; using food to try to meet emotional needs; and staying up late. You don't have to completely avoid these things, but none of them should be habits. This site will help you to replace these bad habits with good ones. Each time you give up a bad habit or develop a good one (all other things being equal), you will lose weight until your body settles at a new, lower equilibrium or plateau. At that point you will need to give up another bad habit or develop another good one in order to permanently lose more weight.

There are plenty of people who would like you to follow their diet and buy their books, memberships, or weight loss products. Those with the most expertise and the least to gain, however, agree that the "best first choice" for weight loss is a permanent lifestyle correction in eating habits and physical activity.1 As you make those changes, you will finally see what your "natural" body is like. Most people can learn how to lose extra fat without tracking calories, going hungry, attending meetings, or buying weight-loss products.