So many fail all kinds of diets, all the time. And it’s not for the lack of trying and efforts, as a matter of fact, many of us tried so hard to the point that “normal” people around us would think that we are nuts, even admire our “will power”.

How could we fail?

But we know too well, most of the diet plans we tried so hard to follow resulted in nothing but stress and frustration, and all the “hard work” in between, we still ended up in abandoning the diet plan all together.

It’s not you, it’s the diet.

With most diet plans out there, most people don’t even have a chance to succeed with it. These diet plans are designed to fail (albeit may not be intentional).

5 of the most common reasons your last diet plan failed you and why.

(Credit note: this is taken from renowned “former-obese-guy turned healthy-and-fit guy” Jon Benson (of “Every Other Day Diet” fame), who by the way, is a solid, stand up and real guy that has actually “been there, through it all, and done it”.)

Reason #1: “I lost interest faster than I lost weight!”

Why: No variety in foods. And by variety, we mean it must include those normal foods you love to eat.

Think about it, if you can eat the normal foods that you love and still be able to lose weight, wouldn’t it be easier for you to continue with the plan?

Reason #2: “I felt trapped, as if every meal was a chore.”

Why: The good news is that a totally healthy weight-loss meal plan does NOT have to be a chore. In fact, every meal can be one you look forward to.

The secret to eat any food you actually enjoy eating and still lose weight is to know exactly how to “manage” your these foods and meals (the foods you love).

Reason #3: “I could not stand the thought of dieting like that for the rest of my life!”

Why: Who could stand the thought of having our future limited? But that’s exactly what most diet plans do. They limit your choices, they limit your eating times, they limit your appreciation for food, and they make you feel guilty for enjoying all that life has to offer.

In another word, they limit your chance of successful weight loss to begin with.

Reason #4: “I had serious food cravings that drove me nuts!”

Why: Many diets fail because they don’t address the seriousness of cravings. This is because most diet creators have never had a real craving and they don’t know how addictive high sugar foods can be.

You need the “will power” of a superman to succeed at these diets.

How many normal people have this kind of “will power”? (I don’t know anyone! Do you?)

(“Will power” is such a totally overrated concept that’s not only useless but utterly misleading, and it can be blamed for many unnecessary stress and frustration in many aspects of our lives.)

Reason #5: “I didn’t like the feeling of not fitting in socially!”

Why: The pressure to eat in social circles is huge. Many diet programs create a wedge between you and the world you live in by telling you to “just say no.”

How many times you are the one at your best friend’s birthday party who says “I can’t”… to the cake?

There you have it. So when was your last diet failed you and why?

Share your thoughts by commenting here. Thanks!

For those who were born with a fast metabolism,  they usually don’t even have to worry about metabolism.

But if you were not so “lucky” to be born with a fast metabolism, there is good news.

The single most important thing you need to know about metabolism

This is all you need to know about metabolism: no matter what metabolism you were born with, it CAN be changed, and can be changed AT WILL.

How can you do that?

Simple (albeit not easy), force your body to adapt a new routine that includes:

1. Eat more often (but not more amount).

When you eat more often, you are “signaling” your body that there are more food to come, and no need to store fat at a fast rate.

You can start by simply breaking up whatever you are eating daily into 6 portions and eat them every couple of hours or so, instead eating them in only 3 or less meals.

It’s one of the “regulating signals” that are very important in your quest for real weight loss.

2. Be physically active in a systematic manner, in other word, start an exercise routine, especially one that involves “weights”, be it gym weights, or body weights.

Weight training is the most effective way of burning fat, simply because weight training grows your muscle mass, and muscle mass is the regulator of metabolism. The more muscle mass you have, the faster your metabolism will be.

It’s important to begin to realize this: your body must consume (burn off) lots of fat in order to grow new muscles. 

3. Do this consistently, for a certain amount of time (12 weeks for example).

It’ll take some time to “teach” your body to adapt the new metabolism rate. The good news is that once your body adapts to a new, faster metabolism rate, it will tend to stay that way, thus naturally burns fat faster than before.

It’s a simple principal: “what’s in motion, tends to stay in motion”. 

This is a sure fire way to not only lose weight for real, but also transform your body’s own behavior into one that burns fat effectively, and thus keeping the weights off without you even having to constantly battling with it, as so many do “yo-yoing” from one diet fad to another.

Though sounds simple, it is not easy for sure. The key is to tackle it (weight loss) in a systematic approach.

Take a different approach than what you’ve been doing before but didn’t work, really think about and set your goals, and get on with a good “system” that are designed help your succeed, not those that are designed to make you fail so that you can come back over and over again to spend more money with them.

We will talk about more on this in the coming posts.

You may even have lost some weights now and then.

But the fact remains: you are still fat.

A big problem: wrong focus.

Lose weight or lose fat? Does it make any difference?

Weight = muscle+water+fat

Fat = Fat

Big difference.

So if your “diets” involve eating less calories, little protein, using apetite suppressent, and your life style is less active, then any “weight loss” you may have experienced are nothing but muscle loss, not fat loss.

When you lose muscle, your metabolism slows down to a trickle. That makes losing fat even harder.

If you don’t eat enough quality food, specially high quality protein (and often, throughout the day), your body will have a hard time maintaining the lean muscle mass you already have, and over time, you will lose them, what remains on your body will mostly be fat.

Solution: refocus your efforts on lose FAT, instead of lose weight.

Better yet, forget about the WEIGHT issue altogether.

Focus all your efforts on increasing lean muscle mass.

This will lead to increased metabolism. Which leads to efficient FAT burning.

Many have seen dramatically improvements to their weight loss results simply by refocusing their whole efforts to FAT loss instead of weight loss.