Many of us have been down this road – you start a diet, lose a couple of pounds and before you know it, you’re back to square one and even have a few more pounds than when you started the diet! As Charlotte Markey, a psychology professor at Rutgers University, explains – diets don’t necessarily promote lasting weight loss simply because some diets are too hard to maintain.
Breaking a diet often throws people into that “What the heck, I don’t care” way of thinking and then they start eating more than they used to before beginning their diet.
Also, some psychological studies have shown that completely eliminating a certain type of food (which is pivotal in many diets) leads to the increased desire to eat that particular food more and more – up to the point where you can no longer control yourself.
So what is the solution?
Make a good plan, but don’t make drastic changes immediately. Give your body time to adjust and adapt to the new dietary rhythm. And remember – the only effective diet is the one that you can actually stick to, so be realistic.