Diet and meal planning is a multibillion dollar industry today. There are many kinds and varieties of dieting plans available that it can be confusing to choose the one that's right for you. Before you go ahead and decide on one diet plan that fits you, it's essential that you understand what dieting is.

Dieting is not food deprivation. It's important to clear this first because this kind of thinking pervades even the most educated of people. This is also the reason why fad diets still remain immensely popular despite their many adverse health effects. If there's any reason why the cabbage soup diet, the orange juice diet, the 3-day diet and all other versions of these diets in between that drive a person to the brink of half-starvation still have its share of adherents, it's this common misconception. And it can be a deadly one, too: Crash diets deprive the body of essential nutrients and puts it in "starvation mode," causing the metabolism to slow and making all other body processes to go awry. After the recommended diet period (usually from 3-7 days), the nutrient-deprived body attempts to regain all the essential proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals lost. As a result, the dieter ends up gaining more weight than the one that was lost.

Thus, in choosing a diet plan, it's important to pick one that will provide your body with the necessary nutrients. More importantly, it's essential that any diet plan you choose will not deprive you of meals and trigger a starvation reaction that will destabilize your system.

Now that you've chosen a diet plan that's right for you, the next thing you need to do is make the most of your choice. Following a diet plan is not merely a matter of eating what needs to be eaten and avoiding foods that aren't part of the regimen. You can do this by first setting a goal for yourself. While diet plans allow you to lose a certain number of pounds within a certain time frame, not all diet plans work the same way for everybody. You have to set your own goals and be realistic about it, too.

Another way to optimize your diet plan is to psychologically prepare yourself for the oftentimes major changes that you will have to make regarding your meal habits. For instance, if your plan calls for reduced portions, buy a smaller plate for your meals. That way, you won't feel that the diet has taken too much from your usual serving portions. Compare that to vast amount of space you're going to look at when you still continue to use a big plate for your new reduced diet. You'll really feel deprived then.

Finally, make the most of your diet plan by consistently following through with it, even after the set time period, provided of course, that it's a healthy and well-balanced nutritional regimen. If you're enrolled in a plan that delivers prepackaged meals, then make sure you ask for a recipe book so that you can still prepare the same kinds of food with the same servings and/or calorie counts even if you're not enrolled with the program anymore. This also means enlisting the help of family and friends, to eat the same kinds of food you eat or at least eat somewhere else if they want to pig out. Last but not the least, it also entails not putting yourself in situations where you'll be tempted to eat. This includes parties, fast food hangouts and the like.