Lose Weight, Keep It Off: A Diet that Works

I saw a quick blurb on a fitness site's forum where people were posting about a Canadian weight-loss company called Herbal Magic. Many of the posts were complaints that it didn't work and they were frauds; others defended it. Big surprise.

I was surprised at some of the information I saw there...they were paying a thousand dollars to join and hundreds of dollars a month for herbal pills, and you're supposed to take some combination of pills at a certain time before the meals while sticking to a strict meal plan.

"I lost XYZ pounds, but lost my friends because I couldn't go out to eat or socialize! It's too strict!"
"I had problems with my health because of the pills..."
"I lost XYZ pounds and gained it back just eating a little at a restaurant!"

Do people ever research things anymore? When will the public wise up about dieting? I'm no expert and I definitely don't have all the answers, but I think it's not hard to see a pattern if you look into the subject long enough...

Weight Watchers: you're put on a point system. You can have a certain number of points, after that you're done for the day. Seems successful for the majority of the people who stick to the plan.
Deal-a-Meal: remember this one? You have cards in a wallet that correspond to food group servings. You have a certain number of servings for the day, when the cards are used up, you're done.
Low-Carb Diets like Atkins and The Zone: you cut refined carbohydrates from your diets. Avoid breads, pastas, etc...
Subscription diets like Jenny Craig: a company ships you for a fee a box of little meals you're allowed to eat. You limit yourself to eating these controlled portions and you lose weight.
Cut It Out Diet like the No Flour No Sugar Diet: You don't eat a certain ingredient; cut out all refined flour and sugar, for example. Some of these are less "fad" than others...this particular one was Dr. Gott's invention and was on the bestseller's list for awhile. Other variations have you exclude just sugars or whatever's a popular fad at the time.
Eat These Pills To Solve Your Problem: You see these ALL THE TIME. Herbals that are magical. Pills that claim to be your Alli in fighting weight gain. Magic bullets that someone in their garage somehow discovered and bring to you via spam or low-cost TV ads while these mega corporations are (take your pick) hiding the secrets from you or unwilling to make billions off selling a magic pill to solve your issues. Some of these are little more than bunk, from what I can find...others are low-dose versions of prescriptions. Alli in particular is xenocal. It's a fat blocker. All of these just happen to come with a weight-loss plan that you're supposed to follow in order to be successful (you have to exercise and eat right AND take my magic problem solving pill? Oh, c'mon!!)
Weight Loss Surgery: this makes your stomach smaller so you feel full sooner, and you're required to change your eating habits so you have smaller portions or risk crapping yourself, excessive pain, or vomiting all over in front of guests. And you need to exercise.
Diet Journals: nutritionists are big fans of this one. It's documented that dieters that are successful in keeping weight off in the long run often are using food diaries to keep track of just how much they're eating...and they're often surprised just how much crap they're ingesting in the first place.

The list goes on, but let's look at the common denominators.

These all, in order to be successful (unless you're talking about a true ripoff diet plan) are requiring you to eat less...whether they put it in different terms (avoid carbs! Avoid breads! Avoid...) or come out and say it (your doctor never told you about portion control?). This is called portion control.

Second, diets are not diets. They're lifestyles. You can't just lose fifty pounds and go back to what you were doing before then get a free card to complain because...surprise!...you regained fifty pounds.

No matter how these diets are selling themselves you only lose weight if you take in fewer calories than the body uses. Some of these are tools to help people keep track of what they're doing (Weight Watchers)...others are tools that aid in repairing damage to your digestive system so you can try transitioning to a better lifestyle (weight loss surgery). They all fail if you fail to make the transition to a new lifestyle.

Stop looking for a magic bullet.

And definitely don't pay a thousand dollars for magic weeds or pills that make you stain your undershorts (did we not learn about orlistat/xenocal before? What about those WOW chips that gave you ZERO FAT calories and quick runs to the bathroom?).

If you want to lose weight, take stock of how many calories you're taking in, then how many you're expending, and start doing the math. That's really what it takes. Adjust your energy output and intake as necessary. Talk to a nutritionist if necessary.

The solution is simple.

The implementation...doing what we really don't want to do...that's hard.