Health Network News

Among the many things a new dieter asks is “How long should I diet?” The common answer is to stick to the diet until the ideal rate is reached. But this is simply untrue.

If you’re trying to lose weight, you might notice that you gain back all the pounds you lost (plus more) when you revert to your old eating habits, no matter how long you stick to your diet. This is the main reason why dieter’s young and old want to know exactly how long it takes for the diet’s good effects to stay for good.

If you’re asking how long you should diet, then there’s good news and bad news for you. The bad news is that there is no diet duration. Going into a diet isn’t temporary. Dieting involves a change in lifestyle, and by that, it’s meant to last your entire life. How long do you need to stick to your diet? As long as you’d like to stick to your ideal weight!

But there’s good news, too. Staying with a diet can be easy. The main reason why so many dieters fail at their diets after only a while is because they go through all the drastic lifestyle changes all at once. Believe me, no one’s that strong. Instead, try to break into your diet slowly and steadily. Here are some tips to help you stick to your diet much more easily.

Take small, but keep growing.

Start your diet by doing small easy feats. A good way to start off your diet would be to cut off all forms of soda and replace this with water, natural fruit juice, or low-fat milk in the first couple of weeks. A typical can of soda contains around ten teaspoons of sugar (definitely quite a lot, don’t you think?). Sticking to your diet will be more doable if you’re in charge instead of following every ‘diet guideline’. Once you achieve one sacrificial task, impose another manageable limit. Then another, and another. Changes in your lifestyle should never come in bulk. It’s easier to manage them when you achieve one task at a time.

Exercise it really does work.

Dieting on its own can help shed all those extra pounds eventually. But with exercise, weight loss will be exponentially faster. Exercising for at least an hour every day for five days a week can prevent you from gaining all those pounds back in case you’d revert to your old nasty eating habits. Go to your preferred gym and try incorporating cardiovascular exercises, strength training and flexibility routines throughout your workout. Also, incorporating fun exercises like dancing, kickboxing and Yoga can also encourage you to stick to your diet.

Don’t beat yourself up

Remember that any kind of food, no matter how fattening or “sinful” it is, can fit into a diet as long as it’s taken infrequently. Make sure you balance out your intake with more healthy food.

Also remember that no one can stick to a diet flawlessly - there’s bound to be the occasional temptation. You may miss a workout on a busy schedule. You may need to drink to toast a friend’s wedding. Whatever the setback, it’s never the end of the world. Instead of feeling sorry for yourself and not trying again, get up and get back on track as quickly as you can. If all goes well, your weight will continue dropping as though nothing happened at all!