We need to stop lying to ourselves and quit swallowing all of the media headlines.
Diets aren’t bad, and we aren’t starving or ruining our metabolisms.
Chances are you won’t lose weight fast.
Stop wasting time looking for a silver bullet.
It’s not there.

   The word “diet” means the stuff one eats.
Everyone is on some sort of diet.

Diets, meaning calorie restriction, DO work.
If we restrict what we eat below what we need each day to run our bodies,
the scale will move. If not, hurry over to a research lab
and let them write you up in a medical journal,
because you’ve figured out how to create energy from nothing.

Adopting some TEMPORARY habits, losing weight,
and then picking up those previous habits again doesn’t work.
The weight always returns.
 
Live one way, lose weight. Live another way, gain weight. 
Go figure.
Diets work.
While you’re arguing with me about it, I’ll be watching my calories.

Three of
the most frequent
Diet MYTHS are:

First, the idea that we need to detoxify or cleanse our bodies;

Second, the idea that we need a plethora of dietary supplements to stay healthy; and

Third, the idea that eating specific foods or products will increase metabolism and make us lose weight.

Notice how often these three Myths are associated with the marketing of unfounded ... (and even potentially harmful) ... diet products.

Bistro Shrimp Pasta (The Cheesecake Factory)
This dish might seem like a healthy choice because of the shrimp, mushrooms and arugula. However, at 3,120 calories it's the most caloric thing on the menu—yes, even more than the cheesecakes.

Crispy Chicken Costoletta (The Cheesecake Factory)
The meal sounds harmless with its "lightly breaded" chicken breasts, mashed potatoes and fresh asparagus, but the meal packs 2,610 calories. The dish has more calories than any steak, chop or burger meal on The Cheesecake Factory's menu

18-ounce Veal Porterhouse (Maggiano’s Little Italy)
Is it really necessary to eat six times the amount of a normal serving of veal in one sitting? Maggiano's thinks so: This colossally large portion of meat weighs in at 1,900 calories. And that's without any sides!

Little Italy Chocolate Zuccotto Cake (Maggiano's)
There's nothing like a little dessert to end a meal. But there's nothing ''little'' about this cake: It provides 1,820 calories.

Country Fried Steak & Eggs (IHOP)
This herculean meal includes 8 ounces of fried steak with country gravy, but it doesn't stop there! You also get to pile on two eggs, hash browns and two buttermilk pancakes. That filling feast comes with a nutritional cost of 1,760 calories.

Baby Back Ribs (Full Rack) with Shiner Bock BBQ Sauce (Chili's)
Eating this rack of ribs would supply you with the nutritional equivalent of two Chili's Classic Sirloin Steak dinners with mashed potatoes—plus another 10-ounce Classic Sirloin Steak on the side. This meal tips the scales at 1,660 calories. If you order the Homestyle Fries and Cinnamon Apples to complete your meal, you increase the damage to over 2,300 calories

 
Johnny Rockets' Bacon Cheddar Double
Johnny Rockets' Bacon Cheddar Double burger is served along with its Sweet Potato Fries and Big Apple Shake, which actually contains a slice of apple pie. That meal delivers a total of 3,500 calories.

Smoothie King's
Peanut Power Plus Grape Smoothie
Smoothie King combines peanut butter, banana, sugar, and grape juice in its Peanut Power Plus Grape Smoothie. A 40-oz. order of the smoothie contains 1,460 calories

Uno Chicago Grill's Deep Dish Macaroni & 3-Cheese
Uno's Deep Dish Macaroni is made up of four cups of pasta, cheddar, Parmesan and Romano cheeses along with Alfredo sauce and a Ritz Cracker topping. The meal contains 1,980 calories.

 
Before my Weight Loss Surgery 20 years ago, I spent about 20 years in Therapy trying to resolve any emotional issues that might be causing my problems with food and weight. I gained lots of information about overeating behaviors, and insight into my own personal life. Therapy helped me learn to like and accept myself even though I was morbidly obese, but it didn’t take away my desire to be a normal weight. It also didn’t result in my becoming any thinner.

In my opinion, too much emphasis on the emotional aspects of overeating simply adds another narrative to “pathologizing” people with excess weight.

Most obese people are not gluttonous sloths without will power, nor are they emotionally-wounded wrecks. You can chose which of these you think is worse.

After a mentally-healthy-person becomes obese in this anti-fat biased culture, sometimes this will adversely affect all dimensions of their physical, emotional and functional health, which brings them close to a pathological state.

However, there are countless people with excess weight, who eat as much - or as little - as skinny folks. Throughout history, overweight and obese individuals have expressed incredible feats of determination and will power, and psychiatric wards are full of skinny people with mental illness.

If there even really IS an obesity epidemic…yes, I’ve read some excellent material disputing that fact … It is probably the natural response to living in an unnatural environment - or perhaps even the natural response to merely living with plenty of food at ready access.

For most people with excess weight, there is probably no real underlying “pathological” driver apart from being human. After all, what do most naturally thin people do to stay thin? The correct answer is often, “not much” … especially when compared to the lifetime efforts put forth by most of the people who have a natural tendency toward fatness.