With literally thousands of products and programs available for weight loss, all of them claiming magical results and benefits, it’s essential to know how to compare weight loss systems.
Learn to read between the lines by noticing what they DON’T say.
Use these simple steps to compare the available Diet / Weight loss systems in order to choose the one that suits your own needs, body and lifestyle.
Choosing the right one can maximize your chances of reaching your ideal weight and maintaining it long term.
So, how do you compare weight loss systems?
Diets and weight loss programs are a multi BILLION dollar business.
There are thousands of products and programs offered for losing weight, and new ones coming out seemingly daily, each one claiming the best results and showing breath taking before and after photos.
But are all of these offerings really as good as they claim to be? and are all of them suitable for YOUR particular circumstances?
As the weight loss industry sells its products for profit, it’s wise to have a cynical attitude toward their claims. They’re obviously not going to tell you about the dissatisfied customers or failed weight loss attempts with their products or services.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s something wrong with a product. Obviously, you can’t expect the businesses to pay good advertising money in order to spread negative statements about their own products.
No doubt most of the vendors in the weight loss industry believe that their products are the best. But that doesn’t necessarily tell you whether or not their specific weight loss system is the best one for you.
Just because someone is certain about something doesn’t make it the TRUTH.
If you want to be certain that you’re investing your time, money and efforts into the right diet that is going to give you the best possible chances of success, you have to be able to slef evaluate and compare the products and systems.
These vendors of weight loss products won’t tell you the whole truth, they only tell you about a fraction of their customers who manage to reach their ideal weight, and not that approximately 95 percent of those will ultimately REGAIN the weight they just lost within a few months!
They all know how to get people interested and excited about dieting. They all know how to sell. But it’s up to you to choose the right system or else, you’re not likely to lose weight OR keep the lower weight should you actually succeed.
So, let’s look at what you should look for in order to evaluate whether a weight loss program has what it takes for you to reach your ideal weight and keep it.
Does the weight loss system focus on the importance of balancing your nutrition? Ultimately, this is what divides weight loss systems into two camps from the get go.
Most diets and weight loss products are based mainly on limiting your intake of calories only. In other words, one counts calories and that’s all. Some of these diets can be downright dangerous:
A diet which instructs you to eat only hard boiled eggs but as much as you like will certainly create huge nutritional deficiencies, gastrointestinal problems and probably increase your cholesterol levels.
Another very popular variation is the diet where you only have to substitute one meal a day with this or that dieting drink, again, this is counting only calories and it certainly won’t balance your diet, quite the opposite in fact.
To succeed with a diet, you need to feel GOOD within your body. That’s simply not possible without balancing your nutrition so that the body gets all the nutrients it requires to feel satisfied.
Forget all the magic trick diets from the beginning.
Without balancing your nutrition, you cannot reach a permanent ideal weight. The diet will be painful and slow and you may be risking your health into the bargain.
The body’s nutritional deficiencies will only get worse which will back fire on you in a BIG way sooner or later.
Is the weight loss system sensible or is it based on some new scientific magic which claims to slim you down without changing your diet?
There are many magic potion weight loss systems offered these days. Ranging from human growth hormones to appetite suppressants, these diets are not really diets at all. Instead, they prey on the misery of the overweight and the confusion brought on by all these weight loss theories that exist.
We are in the age of instant gratification and everybody is hoping for a remedy that acts just like a head ache pill, one simple fast solution that takes care of the problem.
If anyone offered us a similar magic pill for getting a university degree or growing waist length hair, we’d laugh at them and dismiss the whole idea as a hoax.
When we don’t have an immediate solution for a problem, it makes us vulnerable to grabbing anything which claims to help, no matter how impractical the idea really is.
Once you KNOW the basics of nutrition, it IS easy to lose that weight. But KNOWLEDGE is the only way to a permanently maintain a lower weight.
So, read the other articles on this web site and then ask yourself whether the diet you’re following actually MAKES SENSE.
Is it based on wholesome and healthy nutrition?
Does it provide NORMAL food which the body uses?
Is it based on some magic trick which doesn’t really change anything in how you will eat ONCE you’ve reached the ideal weight?
You know the old saying: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is
Forget diets which are based on magic tricks. The only magic in dieting comes from knowing how to eat well while losing weight, balancing the nutrition and then KEEPING to the newly-acquired ideal weight!
Does the weight loss system INCREASE your food intake so as to give your body all that it needs so you’ll feel BETTER than before starting the diet?
Once you understand how the body controls its resources anything it needs to maintain life, among which are nutrients and body fat it becomes clear that the leading principles have to do with both the QUANTITY and QUALITY of nutrition.
Whatever the body has too little of it tends to preserve, fighting its usage tooth and nail.
And whenever you take something AWAY from it, you have to give something ELSE in return preferably more of it.
Otherwise, the body will just lock up and weight loss becomes a very painful, difficult task which creates a huge backlash mechanism into your system which is guaranteed to start GAINING those pounds back on the second that the weight loss phase is over.
If you take calories away from the body, you must give it more and better nutrition in exchange.
Anything else will bring about the shut down phenomenon for the body in some degree, sooner or later.
Choose the diet that gives MORE to eat and you will feel better, lose weight at an easy pace and have a better chance of KEEPING your ideal weight once you reach it!
Does the weight loss system give you the KNOWLEDGE on nutrition and dieting so that you’re not dependent of products or services forever?
Commercially, a dieting system makes most sense if based on a special (secret and/or patented) preparation whose consumption is essential to your weight loss.
In other words, most companies want to make you dependent on them and their brand of diet drink, weight loss powder or exercise routine.
Obviously, that type of dieting gives you no knowledge of dieting. Just buy Product X for the rest of your life is not really the kind of knowledge that will help you stay slim.
So choose the type of weight loss program which EDUCATES you and turns you into a nutritional consultant of sorts so you can lose weight and keep it off by what you know and by using normal foods available in the supermarkets and restaurants.
Anything which makes you dependent on something else or someone else isn’t really setting you free, is it? It’s just substituting one dependency with another.
Therefore, when you are comparing dieting systems, forget about expensive preparations or group meetings or consultations which force you to become dependent on something else to lose weight.
Go for the system which gives you the knowledge in regular layman’s terms, knowledge which is yours forever without any additional ongoing costs or annual payments.
That way, you’ll be able to keep to your diet no matter wherever you are at home, at work, traveling, eating out in restaurants, anywhere.
It’s the knowledge that lets you choose the right foods for your diet.
It’s the knowledge that keeps you losing weight while feeling well within your body and it’s the knowledge that will ultimately guarantee you can keep the achieved ideal weight.
The amount of basic nutritional knowledge needed to lose weight and keep it off is surprisingly little. It only takes a short time to learn and then you’ll have it forever!
Is the weight loss system based on normal food available from your local supermarket and restaurants? Your body needs food and the secret of successful dieting is in knowing WHICH foods to take and how to prepare them.
Once you’ve learned these things you can pick out a good meal from just about any selection, be it in the supermarket or in a restaurant.
But if the diet requires you to have special preparations or attend meetings if it requires you to have funds available for continuing the diet well, you get the idea.
It’s hard enough to lose weight as it is. The more you have to pay for it, the more you have to remember in advance to stick to it, the less likely you are to succeed.
Go for the weight loss program that is based on normal foods. It’s not only healthier, more convenient and easier. It’s also cost-effective you’ll save hundreds of dollars compared to what your food bill used to be before dieting.
Compare that to ADDED cost of preparations and/or weekly programs. Select a diet which is based on knowledge and normal foods and you’ll be able to save up for something nice to reward yourself with once you’ve reached your ideal weight!
Does the weight loss system give tools to STABILIZE the ideal weight once you’ve reached it?
Putting it bluntly, unless a weight loss system includes a well-planned stabilization phase, you’re not going to keep that lower weight for very long.
This is the cruel side of the weight loss industry: Overweight people are desperate to LOSE weight since that’s the pressing problem they have right NOW.
Thus, all efforts are concentrated on the weight loss phase ONLY. But very few systems have ever bothered creating a way to STABILISE the weight once the excess pounds have been lost.
We’re all so eager to LOSE weight that we never really think that far ahead. Yet, if you don’t have a way to stabilise your weight after weight loss, it has no way to go but BACK ON AGAIN.
Our regular eating habits are what caused us to gain this weight over the years. If the weight loss program doesn’t teach us how to stabilise the weight and balance the intake of food to match our energy output, we have nowhere to go but back to those old habits and back to the old weight! or even worse heavier than we were to start with.
I know that we’re convinced that our self-discipline will suffice to keep the overweight from coming back on again. But it’s not going to happen overnight and in a few months, those old eating habits have a way of creeping back into our routines.
And while I’ve no doubt your self-discipline and power are great, there’s very little chance of maintaining your ideal weight for long without a stabilizing phase in the weight loss program.
Statistics speak against it.
Of those who reach their ideal weight with a system which has no stabilizing phase, only 1-2% manage to KEEP their weight at that lower level for more than 2-5 months. Hardly anyone manages it for two years to say nothing of the rest of their lives.
But, out of those who’ve dieted using a system which INCLUDES a stabilizing phase, some 60-75% manage to maintain their ideal weight for the next six months and more than half for two years and more.
If you can keep the lower weight for 1-2 years, you’re almost guaranteed to have changed it for life.
The fact is that the body needs to be TRAINED into maintaining the new ideal weight and you need to know how to keep your nutrition balanced in order to have a good chance of KEEPING your lower weight permanently.
Stabilization and maintenance of ideal weight are equally if not more important than losing weight. And it solves the unsolvable problem of weight coming back on so insist that the system you choose has a stabilization phase!
Does the weight loss system have a successful MAINTENANCE phase so you can stay at your ideal weight long enough for it to become permanent?
Once you’ve stabilized your ideal weight, it needs to be maintained level for a minimum period of 6-12 months.
It’s not hard to do if you know how.
But ensure that the weight loss system of your choice HAS a maintenance phase.
For else, you’ll gain back those pounds and have to start all over again.
What’s the TOTAL cost of the weight loss program?
The full cost of commercial solutions is often cleverly camouflaged behind a single low price.
Only $10 a week or mere pennies per day are very common statements covering a long and extremely expensive weight loss program.
Losing weight can take quite a bit of time. Any price that is dependent on TIME will add up to a lot of money eventually.
Whichever weight loss system you choose, don’t let your enthusiasm get the better of you. Instead, evaluate the full cost of the FULL diet, including the way to STAY slim after you’ve shed those excess pounds.
The best weight loss programs are based on normal food and nutritional knowledge. These will SAVE you money every week as your grocery bill will be LESS than normally.
Obtaining the knowledge is inexpensive and it’ll be yours for life without continuous payments. In fact, it’ll save you money continuously!
Don’t let the evaluation stop you from losing weight!
One last piece of advice: There are many good dieting systems available. Our intention is not to confuse you into inactivity.
Ride the enthusiasm and go for it.
Just use the articles on this site to get some information on the vital points of weight loss so you can evaluate the system that you choose.
Read between the lines by noticing what the merchants DON’T say about their weight loss products and programs. That’s usually much more revealing than the glowing positive claims that they make!
Use common sense when picking the weight loss program which suits your needs and lets you lose weight while feeling better than before.
Pick the one which contains means to stabilize the weight and keep the achieved ideal weight.
And select the one which is based on normal foods and won’t cost an arm and a leg!
Filed under: Weight loss
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