Keep in mind that human body took shape millions of years ago, and at that time, there were no such things as diets, let alone fad diets. The only low-calorie event in people's lives was starvation. Those who could cope with a temporary lack of food were ones who survived. Our bodies therefore, have developed this built-in mechanism to help us survive in face of low food intake. Losing weight is not something you can do overnight. A carefully planned weight loss program requires common sense and certain guidelines. Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation floating around and lots of desperate people are easily duped and ripped off.

Every day you can open a magazine or newspaper and see advertisements promoting products, pills or patches that will take excess weight off quickly. Everyone seems to be looking for that magic weight loss pill. Millions of people are trying to lose weight, spending billions of dollars every year on diet programs and products without long-term success.

Often people do lose some weight but if you went back and checked with same people five years later, you would find that nearly all of them have regained whatever weight they lost due to fact that their lifestyle didn’t change.

The myth is that people get heavy by eating too many calories. Calories are a consideration it's true, but overall they are not cause of obesity. People actually take in fewer calories each day than they did at beginning of last century. If calories alone were reason we become overweight, then we should all be overweight. But we are not.

Collectively, we are heavier than ever. Partly it is because we are more sedentary now than ever before. But equally as important is fact that fat content of western diet has changed dramatically. And because it’s quicker and easier than ever before to purchase junk food full of saturated fat, people simply eat too much of it without considering health related problems of eating so poorly. In a lot of cases it’s not until people are actually confronted with real possibility of something happening to them that they take action and commence a dieting plan.

On other hand, when most people decide to do something about their weight or determine that they want to change their lifestyle, a lot of time it’s a spur of moment decision or a New Year’s resolution. Deciding to lose weight without having put any thought or planning into it is like wanting to get a house built without a plan.

People find out and plan their holiday destination, plan to build a home and yet when it comes to losing weight, they don’t plan a thing. There is a great saying along lines of - people don’t plan to fail, but rather they fail to plan. It’s so very true. If people took same approach to weight loss as they did at planning their holidays, then their chances of success would be as good as having a great holiday.

The average person simply does not plan to lose weight, they just want it to happen and unfortunately it just doesn’t happen that way. As a minimum before commencing any dieting plan, people should have short, medium and long term weight loss goals. They should also write down who inspires them to help them keep motivated through tougher times.

It’s very important to know what’s being eaten on a daily basis before commencing a diet, so a food diary is an absolute must. People need to sit down and plan their meals. If meals are being planned in advance then it’s more likely that sensible eating habits will become a part of a healthy lifestyle. Along with planning meals, people should plan to make time in day to exercise.