For those of you out there who want to lose weight but feel overwhelmed about the amount of diet and exercise plans out there, don’t despair just yet.

Yes, there are hundreds, possibly thousands of different diets out there, but don’t delay trying to lose weight even though you aren’t sure about which plan to follow. How on earth do you know which one is the best for you? After all, can you possibly contemplate a life without carbs? Do you love cabbage so much that you’d be happy to follow the cabbage soup diet but live with the flatulence?

There are so many diet methods out there to try, yet no matter what anybody tells you, there is no “correct weight loss method”. Anybody who tells you that there is only one method to lose weight is probably trying to sell you something and will probably hinder your progress more than help it.

All diets follow the basic weight loss principle: if you reduce your intake of calories and increase your exercise, you WILL lose weight.

Go on a diet, lose weight. Simple!

Weight loss plans pretty much all follow this principle – they just take a different route. As you will already be aware, everybody is different and different plans work for different people. Will Atkins work for me, Louisa? Heck no! I love carbohydrates and when my IBS royally kicked off three years ago, I temporary had to give up gluten and dairy. This meant no bread, milk, cheese and pasta – everything I love! I lived off chicken, veggies, oat milk, porridge and gluten-free pasta and pesto. I mean it when I say that this is pretty much all that I ate for months. I lost weight but at what cost? I was generally unwell and miserable. Would I enforce that kind of diet on myself again? No, there has to be a better way that I am happy to live with where I don’t feel denied anything I’d like from time to time.

Dieting is a lifestyle choice. Once you reach your goal, are you going to go back to your old eating habits? No! You need to be happy with the diet you’ve chosen otherwise you’ll resent your decision and will be less likely to stick to it… and get fat again.

Slimming aids

A side note for those contemplating taking slimming aids like the acai berry products or Hoodia – you need to realise that

a.) They will not work unless you eat a healthy diet and exercise too

b.) The clue is in the name – they are slimming aids!

You can’t eat rubbish and expect to lose weight. Again, anyone who tells you that pills makes weight loss easy has ulterior motives. This means that you still need to choose a healthy diet plan, they are not a long-term solution but the right one could certainly help you lose weight and keep it off in the long run. As you know, I recommend Proactol.

Choosing the right diet

For fussy eaters and those with food allergies, how do you choose the right diet that lets you eat the foods that you like? Over the coming months, I intend to ‘Showcase’ a selection of diets and not just write a bit about them, but give an honest account of what it’s like to follow these diets. Soon, I will be publishing a piece about the South Beach Diet – make sure you look out for it!