Your body is an amazing creation. It is the most sophisticated machine in existence and its reactions and responses have been fine-tuned over hundreds of thousands of years. The one thing that hasn't changed though is that your body's first, and most powerful, driving force is survival and that's why dieting doesn't work on a long-term basis.

When you give your body less energy (food) than it needs it will initially draw down the energy shortfall from your fat reserves and you will start to lose weight. But if you carry on like this your body is going to think that it might be killed by starvation. So it will adjust to these new circumstances and respond by adjusting your energy requirements so that you can function on a lower intake of food. But because your body's so smart it then goes one stage further and actively works at rebuilding your fat reserves so that you can't sneak up on it and try to starve it to death again.

It's a scary thought that whilst you are fighting hunger pangs, having withdrawal symptoms for your favorite meals and suffering the sheer boredom of a restricted diet your body is actively working against you because it is determined to put back the weight you have lost.The good news is that although you can't change your body's instincts and response mechanisms, with a little knowledge of how they work in different situations, you can use them to lose weight naturally and to maintain your target weight almost without realizing you're doing it.

You need to get some basic knowledge of how your body handles different types of food and match that to your lifestyle, to pinpoint the areas where you are in conflict with your body's pre-programmed responses. This will allow you to identify acceptably small changes, which you can sustain almost without noticing, that will really make a difference. For anyone who wants to lose weight and keep it off, it's best to gradually develop a pattern of good eating habits that can be continued for life.

Try this five-step approach to getting rid of those unsightly pounds.

1. Keep a note of what you eat and drink for the next three weeks. Don't cheat!

2. At the end of the three weeks measure and weigh yourself.

3. Set yourself a sensible target of what you want to weigh and measure in the future. (If you don't know where you are trying to go you will get lost along the way.)

4. Check your food notes for bad habits ? missed meals, snacking between meals,bad food combinations, frequent processed food meals and excess alcohol or sugary drinks.

5. Reduce the frequency of bad habits. For example, if you can't resist snacking replace your usual snack with something healthy like fruit on alternate days. Or if your favorite meal is a cardiac surgeon's nightmare, save it for once a week rather than twice ? you'll enjoy it all the more and it will only do half the damage.

Continue to make small adjustments to your favorite meals and eating patterns so that you progressively create good food combinations and eating habits. You'll find that not only will you shed those unwanted pounds but also eating will continue to be a pleasure.