All you hear about today is "Fit into those skinny jeans in a few days" advertisements. I have tried seems like every diet on this planet and a few others. I hear the same thing from every diet plan that promises to help me get thin.

Then I read what authorities on weight have to say and it sounds something like this; obesity is a physical state that refers to excessive body fat. And to reduce body fat takes time and exercise. The first thing that comes off is water not fat. Fat is burned off and to burn fat you must exercise. So what is diet and dieting I asked myself? You may have asked the same questions and chances are you have experienced the frustrations of dieting at least once in your life, if you have problems with your weight.

Statistics say that close to a hundred million people go on a weight loss diet in any given year; up to ninety-five percent of them regain the weight they lose within five years, I was in the 95% category. Worse, a third will gain back more weight than they lost, in danger of "yo-yoing" from one popular diet to another.

First you try one quick diet and maybe that diet helps you lose some body fluid, and you think that you have lost weight. In reality you only lost temporary body water, a quick 5 to 10 pounds or so. Then in a few days after the quick diet you find the 5 - 10 pounds and maybe a few more have returned.

The conventional approach to weight problems is that we focus on quick fad weight loss diets or weight loss drugs, and these may leave you with just as much weight and the additional burden of ill health and low self esteem. Low self esteem because you start to think you can't lose weight, when you really want to be thin or just thinner.

Today, an estimated sixty-five percent of all adults are obese or overweight. Our culture obsesses about staying thin even as we grow fatter, but this isn't about appearances. Obesity is known to be a precursor to many debilitating health conditions such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, osteoarthritis, and gallbladder disease. I find my health conditions concern me more than just losing the weight.

In my search for more information on my health concerns, I found out that obesity contributes to as many as 375,000 deaths every year. In addition, the public health costs for obesity are staggering. According to researchers at Harvard University, obesity is a factor in 19% of all cases of heart disease with annual health costs estimated at 30 billion dollars; it's also a factor in 57% of diabetes cases, with health costs of $9 billion per year.

Now that I am a little wiser on weight loss I tend to Set More Realistic Goals for myself. No doubt you have fallen for one or more of the weight loss diet schemes over the years and I truly have purchased all of them. They all promised quick and painless weight loss. Many of these quick weight loss diet programs undermine your health, cause physical discomfort, flatulence, and ultimately lead to disappointment when you start regaining weight, shortly after losing it.

Fad or quick weight loss diet programs generally overstress one type of food. They contravene the fundamental principle of good nutrition - to remain healthy one must consume a balanced diet, which includes a variety of foods. Safe, healthy, and permanent weight reduction is what's truly lost among the thousands of popular diet schemes. I am in this for the long haul not the short quick without a failsafe method.

Some of the weight loss diet schemes reign supreme briefly, only to fade out later. While some wane from popularity due to being unproductive or unsafe, some simply lose the public's curiosity we tend to move onto better, faster, and newer products. Examples of such fad diets include the Grapefruit diet, Cabbage Soup diet, Beverly Hills diet, Apple cider vinegar, green tea diet, there are many popular name diets that I dare not mention here, but I do on my blog - the list goes on and on. These fad diets advocate a specific technique (such as eliminating a certain food, or eating only certain combinations of foods) in conjunction with the basic idea that the body makes up the difference in energy by breaking down and utilizing some part of itself, essentially converting matter into energy.