The greatest problem when it comes to diet and weight loss programs is for many people weight loss is not permanent. It could be a matter of days, weeks or months; the simply fact is that most people during this time put back most or all of their lost weight. This can cause anxiety, anger and frustration at the time and effort put towards following a weight loss program that has not delivered the desired results.

So whose responsibility is this far this lack of permanent weight loss; is it the person doing the diet or the diet plan that is being followed itself?

To answer this question fully; involves firstly looking at the psychology of many dieters, as well as the choice of diets available out there.

Most people think weight loss programs have to be complicated to fit in with age, sex and body type. As I am about to reveal many weight loss programs on the face of it look complicated, however this unnecessary complication is mainly to differentiate it from the competition. It can be very confusing to know which diet plan to follow with so much choice out in the marketplace.

Many weight loss programs out there make themselves different from the competition, by using different daily calorie ratios for the 3 main nutrients found in food. The three main nutrients are proteins, fats and carbohydrates. So for example, what you can have is high, medium, low and zero daily calories of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. There is so many different combinations you can with these 3 main nutrients use to make a weight loss plan. There is little wonder that there is so much competition out there with a vast number of different weight loss plans.

So why do so many diets fail people and why isn't there one diet out there that has proven to consistently achieve permanent weight loss.

The real answer is to turn the first question around; instead it should read why do so many people fail in their dieting. This leads to answering the second question; there isn't a diet that guarantees permanent weight loss, because it depends very much on the individual who is carrying out the diet.

So instead of recommending which diet you should follow, you need to understand why people fail diets in the long term, this can lead to stopping the cycle of putting weight back on when lost, thus achieving permanent weight loss.

Generally almost all diets work by using the different combinations of fats, proteins and carbohydrates for your daily calorie intake. In the short term by burning up more calories than you intake you will lose weight.

Recent studies back this up; when the popular commercial diets were compared against other over a 6-12 month period, they mostly showed similar weight loss results. One major study concluded that the person adhering to the diet, rather than the diet itself was the main indicator of whether the weight loss program would work or not.

So what this shows clearly that, the most likely way to succeed in achieving permanent weight loss depends on how well you adhere to a weight loss plan in the long term. So how can this be achieved?

A solution to achieving permanent weight loss lies in looking at making lifestyle changes; developing new positive habits that involve following weight loss programs in the long term. The simply fact changes like this simply do not happen overnight and take weeks, sometimes months to become an integrated part of a persons life.

The sad fact is most people there are looking for a magic wand to end their weight loss problems. Many turn to drugs and surgery for an immediate result. Unfortunately drug use and surgery can have side effects or unknown long term consequences.

So the safer and more effective way to permanent weight loss is to reduce your calories and do your diet program for the long term. By developing these habits over weeks, months and years you ensure that weight loss will become permanent for you.