Reduced Intake Diets require the reduced intake of food, cutting out favorite foods, learning to like new foods, spending more time planning and preparing food. All these changes can make the dieter feel punished by the very process which is supposed to improve life. This is where people fail diets. Any change required to lose weight will need to continue after the pounds are gone. When dieters revert to old habits, the weight creeps back on.
Diets go wrong by creating a repeated failure record.
Every time a dieter fails at a diet, stops trying and returns to old eating habits, the chances of succeeding at the next attempt are reduced. The dieter becomes fatalistic about the possibility of ever losing weight. The real answer to the shortcomings of diets seems to be to eat the foods you are accustomed to, but reduce the amount of everything eaten. Rather than learning new ways of cooking, suffering through painful shopping trips for food you don't like, spending hours cooking and tracking the amounts eaten, simply fill your plate as usual, put part of it back and eat the rest with a clear conscience. A reduction of only 500 calories a day will result in a weight loss of one pound a week which adds up over time.