Every now and them we all tend to look into the mirror and cast a critical eye on our bodies. The internal monologue goes something like this: “I’d say that my ass looks… biggish. Could be the clothes are badly designed. Oh, who am I kidding? I’ve been eating a lot of sweets and junk food lately, so no wonder I’m putting on weight.” The usual result of these pangs of culinary guilt is a hasty decision to swear off junk food and an evening or two spent searching the Internet for diets and eating plans. This is the way people run into the latest dieting craze that can make anybody slim and vastly improve the quality of life, too.

Unfortunately, the first thing people do when they accept that a couple of extra pounds have found their way around the waist is to panic and look for the fastest way to get rid of them. This is a big mistake. The quick fix is just that and it will always and forever be nothing else. And any problem that gets a quick fix is not really going away at all. So, instead of going for the latest diet that will make you lose and incredible number of pounds in just a few days or weeks, try to chose a diet that takes a little longer and is not nearly as hard on you.

The “lose weight instantly” diets are based mostly on losing body water. This is a silly idea because you will put the weight right back on with a couple of glasses of water. You’re not trying to lose water, but body fat so stay away from these diets. Good diets need time to work for you and losing one pound per week is actually a good rate. Losing three pounds per week sounds way better, but it’s a big mistake. Anything more than two pounds per week is bound to be loss of lean tissues that make up the muscles. The basic idea is that the faster you go, the more muscle mass you lose; slow diets make sure that what goes out is fat.

The biggest problem is that quick weight loss schemes can turn into a vicious circle. The more muscles mass one has, the faster the metabolism and very little of the food intake gets to be stored as fat. But if the diet makes you lose muscle mass, then your metabolism slows down and the accumulated fat is burned slower and slower. As you can see, a bad diet makes it harder for you to lose weight. Starving yourself is a bad idea because your metabolism has to function at the proper speed in order to help you lose weight.

Not to mention that eating the right kind of food is important because you need calories to give your body the staying power it needs through the diet. There is a difference between feeling hungry while your body adjusts to less food and feeling starved because you’re not getting the required daily amount of calories. The food you eat also gives you the energy needed to burn fat through physical effort. You can’t go to the gym or run in the park if you’re about to faint every time you get up from the chair. So the next time you feel like diet time, chose wisely. There’s a big difference between dieting and starvation.