Recent research shows that one in three people who try to lose weight on a diet actually gain as much as six kilos.
Another third of dieters will regain the weight they have lost within weeks of ending a diet.
Most of those who have been on the diet roller coaster for sometime will also confirm that in the long run, deprivation doesn't work to keep the weight off.
If it did work, multi-billion dollar weight loss and diet industry would have had the global obesity epidemic solved by now.
So if dieting doesn't work, what is the answer, if there is one, to long term weight loss?
What if the answer was much simpler than we thought? What if the answer didn't involve counting calories, weighing food portions, ceaselessly weighing and measuring ourselves? What if the answer didn't involve feeling guilty or bad about ourselves for the food we ate?
What if the key to a beautiful body, like in many areas of life, could be found within us?
For many of those who have struggled with their weight, this may not be the answer they want to hear.
It puts way too much responsibility on them.
It's much easier to hand the power for our bodies to the author of the latest fad diet, and to believe their assurances that we can lose up to 15 pounds in a week by following their regimes, than to face what we're trying to avoid with our weight problems.
There are many things we can avoid through weight problems.
These include disappointments in other areas of our lives, relationship issues, hurts from our past and other emotions that are difficult to face.
If we're constantly obsessing with our bodies and blaming all our problems on our excess fat, we never have to face all other areas of our lives that are crying out for attention.
Make no mistake, even when you have the body you've always dreamed of, all those other issues will still be there.
You'll just be dealing with them in a slim body.
In the long term, the only solution to each person's weight problem can be found from inside themselves.
Our solutions will come from the little voice we've ignored as we've put the advice from the latest weight loss guru, or well intentioned best friend or relative ahead of it.
Although years of dieting may have caused that little voice to fade into the background, when we start tuning into once again we find that it is as clear as ever.
Learning how to tune into it is the real trick, and once we do this, it is that voice that can lead us on a straight path to the beautiful, healthy and slim body meant for us to enjoy life in.
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