Chances are you've tried many fad diets.  Most of us have, at some stage, tried to fast or effectively starve ourselves for short periods of time.  Most people have tried restricting what they eat down to just one or two food groups as a way of reducing the amount of food they consume.  Do I hear anyone say "cabbage soup"?

While vigorously denying yourself Calories can create a reduction in weight, both your immediate health suffers and your long term ability to keep off the weight can be markedly reduced.

Setting a sensible caloric intake

The American Food and Drug Administration recommends that those undertaking weight loss should strive for a daily intake of about 1500 Calories or 6270 kilojoules.  Anything below 1000 Calories is just too low.

The problem with very low Calorie diets is that they cause your body chemistry to undergo a fundamental change.  Your body begins what is known as a "famine response".  This is where your body strongly believes that from now on, food could be very scarce.  It's primary goal becomes to help you survive, and it does this by more actively storing consumed foods as fat.  As a result, even consuming smaller  amounts of food than you would normally eat can see those foods being converted into body fat.  It can actually become significantly more difficult to lose weight with your body's famine mechanism in place.

Eating a balanced diet

Many people forgo health in the process of losing weight.  Fad or unbalanced diets are designed to reduce your levels of retained fluids and body fat regardless of the health cost and impact on your body.  Eating should be about providing our body with nutrients.  That's its purpose.  Selecting foods from just one or two food groups isn't enough to provide the variety of amino acids, vitamins, and minerals which are essential to keeping us healthy.

The National Food and Drug Administration has released a chart in the form of a food pyramid.  It provides a hierarchy of food groups and indicates the amount of each food type that should be eaten each day.  The Weight Loss International Slim for Life Program adheres strictly to this food pyramid system, and to the Calorie recommendations set by the FDA.

The FDA recommends that grains should occupy more of your diet than any other food group.  It fact, it suggests 6 to 11 serves daily.  The next major group is vegetables, then fruits, right up to small amounts of meat and poultry.

Selecting a wide variety of foods from the right food groups provides for your body the best possible nutrition.  Plus, it has the added bonus of setting yourself a very sustainable eating pattern which you should continue once you've reached your goal weight.