Diet pills are potentially dangerous, and can slow metabolism. You'll get short-term weight loss, but you are also going to sabotage long-term weight loss

Most of us think about “starting a diet” every now and then, such that we want quick results — maybe that 5 or 10 pounds we want to lose because we want to attend our class reunion. However, if you really want to stay healthy and lose weight permanently, you’ll need to find a diet plan that’s going to support you for the rest of your life.

So-called fad or quick fix diets are certainly nothing new, and they’ve been around for a long, long time. They do work for short-term results, such as if you want to get into a bikini for summer. However, the diet industry actually thrives on our failure, because let’s face it; if we actually succeed long-term, they no longer make money from us.

And so, as every New Year comes around, again we make the resolution that we’re going to lose weight once and for all. We find an exciting “new diet” that we want to try, or a nifty new DVD just on the market. Of course, failure ensues after a few weeks, with the diet claiming its place on the shelf to gather dust. That is, until spring comes around, at which time we try again, so that we can look good for the summer.

Instead of doing the same cycles every year, why not go on a “diet” that is not only going to produce the results you want, but will give you a way of life that’s permanent so that the weight comes off and stays off permanently? Why not set things up so that you never have to look at another “diet” again? Metabolism is in fact one of the most important elements in our diets, but many of us don’t really understand what that means. So, we make these four major mistakes when we try to “diet”:

1. Trying to lose weight from just one area. It’s a known fact; you can’t just “spot reduce.” All those late-night infomercials aside, if you want to lose fat on your butt, you have to lose fat everywhere. So, a whole body workout is key, not that nifty new piece of equipment that’s (supposedly) going to make your thighs look smaller.

2. Using diet pills to cut appetite. Diet pills are potentially dangerous, and can slow metabolism drastically by cutting your appetite. You’ll certainly get short-term weight loss, but you probably are also going to sabotage long-term weight loss efforts and hurt your health at the same time.

3. Extensively cutting calories. When you cut calories extensively, you cut your metabolism down as well, which is actually going to sabotage your weight loss in the long run. You might lose a lot of weight at first, but don’t let that fool you; that weight loss is muscle mass and water, not fat. And because you lose muscle mass when you do that, your metabolism is going to be lowered even further, which means you’re going even have less ability than previously to lose weight. That’s because you won’t be able to burn calories to the extent you did before you lost all that muscle mass. And when you go back to eating more calories (as you must, since severely restricted diets never work for the long haul), you’re going to gain all of that weight back, and probably more, even if you don’t actually eat more calories.

4. Thinking of metabolism as being affected by only one thing. Metabolism isn’t just affected by one thing you do. It’s affected by how much you sleep, your sex, how much muscle mass you have, and how old you are, among other things.

If you truly want to lose weight and be successful at it, you have to take everything above into consideration and put it in proper perspective. First, consider your health when it comes to your diet. “Quick weight loss” fad diets are never going to work for long, so instead, set up a healthy eating plan for yourself that will support you for the rest of your life, and give you good health.