When it comes to losing weight, you certainly have a lot of options these days about the way you want to go about doing it.  The amount of money Americans spend on fad diets and exercise equipment increases every year, and yet, so does the rate of American obesity.  This is because people are looking for a quick fix to their weight problems and they go for a few days eating very low calorie diets and of course, this doesn’t last long because very few people can go a long time without eating enough calories to sustain them.

Moreover, a very low calorie diet has a bad effect on the body and actually slows your metabolism because your body reacts as if it’s starving and so goes into survival mode and starts conserving more body fat.  

You still need to eat a lower calorie diet to lose weight, but you need to make the change gradually and you need to make sure that your diet still has all the nutrients in it your body needs to sustain it.  This is best accomplished by eating a variety of foods in moderation and also getting regular physical exercise.  

This means that you need to eat from each food group in the food pyramid:  milk, meat, fruit, vegetable and bread.  You probably shouldn’t go off sweets cold turkey, either.  Your cravings will bother you and make you feel constantly deprived.  If you allow yourself an occasional treat, your body will react more favorably to your new eating habits.