h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Surely if you say, "I'm on a diet" and deprive yourself of all , , etc, that's what you end up crving and you end up binging after a few days. Surely words like "diet" should be banned. They just bring a bad image. Better talk about "eating more healthily" or something?

I think you're right. "On a diet" makes me think of all the different fads and plans. "Only eat things with sugar as the third listed ingredient". "Only 12.5 grams of carbohydrate per day". "No saturated fats on a Tuesday". Give me patience!

I've yet to meet anyone who can stick to plans like that. A wide and varied eating regime is best. Crisps for breakfast, chocolate for lunch, ice cream for dinner and you can't go wrong.

exactly. you crave what you can't have! it's human nature!

Exactly. So anyone any tips that work?

Well so far I've given up on adding salt to my food which hasn't been too hard as I'm sure there's probably as much in my brown sauce.

I have stopped caffeine completely. This was pretty hard as I got real bad pains as it left my system kinda of like a bad flu.

The best way to get of the stuff is sheer force of will. There are no real shortcuts.

I'm a serial dieter - and I can tell you that they just don't work. After being on every diet known to man (and a few that aren't!) I have decided on the following tips for staying healthy.

1) Moderation is key. Have one chocolate, not the whole box. You only taste the first two anyway, so why eat 24 of them? 1 glass of wine is just as nice and 4 glasses of wine - and less of a hangover!

2) Exercise is important. I have recently joined a gym and started going three times a week. Sometimes I really do not feel like going, but I force myself and end up feeling much better.

3) Don't weigh yourself. Scales are for fish. buy a pair of trousers in a size you want to be and then use them as a gauge. I call them my "Trousers of Truth".

4) It does not take an intellectual giant to work out what to eat and what not to eat. I use the Low fat, low Gi method of food choices and it seems to be working.

Hope that helps!

It's easier to stick to a plan if you do it with someone else.I know is sounds corny but paying money each week to an organisation to be weighed also helps.Group therapy always makes it easier as you get encouragement,recipe tips and commiserations/pep talks when things go awry.

Stay OFF the scales.The only scales that count in my house are the ones I use to weigh my food.If you keep weighing yourself you will become neurotic about it and possibly make you adopt some foolish actions such as starving yourself,making yourself vomit or take unneccessary laxitives.

Be realistic!Losing weight takes time especially the nearer you are to your ideal weight.Don't get uptight if you don't lose at all/as much as you expected/as much as someone else/as much as you did when you were younger.If you do, again you may just give up or adopt some bad habits.

Setting a realist final goal also helps.If it's six weeks to a special event you may not manage to shift that 6 stone to fit into a size 12.Just aim to be a little thinner and think about wowing them in 6 months or a year or so.

Think you're right about the scales. I've heard people getting excited coz they've lost a couple of pounds then getting depressed when they put one back on. I've thought the same of the Weight Watcher points at times that while it's great that it allows you whatever you like within reason, but it can keep you counting an paranoid about how many point are in one jelly baby or whatever.

Well counting points can't be any worse than the poor tobacco/alcohol addict who counts their life away in cigarettes/drinks given up and how many years,months,days and hours since they went on the wagon.You can become rabid about any vice given up if you are not careful

The danger lies in allowing your 'plan' and weight loss to rule your life to the extent that you are boring on the subject.Diet evangelism is depressing to others.

True. Have to have a goal,but not become bsessed.