Diets do work. A number of studies have shown that adherence to a diet rich in nutrients, while consuming optimal calories and exercising consistently, does lead to marked and safe weight reduction.
The Harvard Women’s Health Watch reported that without exercise, and regardless of food selection, a diet containing 1,400-1,500 calories per day promotes weight-loss.
A few words for women who want to see changes in their body shape:
Be patient. Be consistent. Be persistent. Nothing comes easy.
Mike Davies, Professional Fitness Trainer to world-class women athletes
This is the very reason women are not “getting” this dieting thing. Women who fail at dieting do not eat properly and exercise on a consistent basis. The reason for this failure is not the diet, but the list of excuses, misinformation and misguided motivations that derail women from attaining and sustaining their ideal weight.
As author Jane Ogden points out in The Psychology of Eating, most women are motivated to diet because of body dissatisfaction. Their discontent makes women desperate for fast changes and vulnerable to dieting self-sabotage. As research already points out, desperate dieting leads to reckless health habits and ultimately weight-loss failure.
Personal trainer for many world-class female athletes, Mike Davies finds that the reason women fail to adhere to a sensible diet and exercise program is because they do not see immediate results.
So why demonize all diets because women, knowingly or not, commit an assortment of self-defeating dieting sins and blame this failure on the diet or on a world that unjustly forces women to be slim?