The Myth of the Good Dieter and the Truth About Permanent Weight Loss

The following is an excerpt from "The Full Diet" by Dr. Michael Snyder:

Here is how it is supposed to go: You decide that you are unhappy with the way you look and feel. A diet plan or program gets your attention. You buy the book, purchase the plan, or join the program or club. You choose the date to start. You re-create your life to "make this work." This may include throwing out all of your old foods and replacing them with newer, improved, healthier counting, measuring, weighing, and so on. Then you start. By sheer force of will and determination, you fight to make the plan stick. This is hard when it's all in the face of the many demands and commitments of your real life.

Eventually, the will and force fade. Something always gets in the way. How many people have ever really had the long-lasting success in the framework, no matter what support network is established, no matter how many contingency plans are laid out, no matter how much positive reinforcement is given, no matter how good they may be feeling with their small steps toward success? The discipline flags and the weight comes back - perhaps even more than you started with. you vow to start again soon.

I'm fed up with people trying to lose weight and failing again and again. People are not failing their weight loss efforts; rather, the industry is failing them. When I ask patients about their weight-loss history, I often hear, "I always go on [name of diet] when I need to lose weight because it works." Does it? It sounds like it's failed you every time. Like you, diet programs all insist that they "know how to lose weight" Do they? Do you? If you are reading this, I'd say not.

In this book, I'm going to begin to shake you loose from the clutches of believing (and returning to the safe haven) that diets work - that there is a perfect diet out there for you. The perfect diet does not exist. This may seem unbelievable, or just unfamiliar, but diets don't work because they don't take into consideration who we are and what we need. It's a non-negotiable fact.