Can't Lose Weight? Try This!

I can't lose weight!  Why?
There are four broad reasons why some of us struggle with losing weight.  They are genetic and medical reasons, cultural reasons, circumstantial reasons and emotional reasons.  But like a four color printer which can combine four colors to produce millions of colors, these four reasons can combine to produce millions of reasons we try and can't lose weight.  For the purposes of this article I will concentrate on the emotional reason we can't lose weight since trying to tackle all the reasons would require more than several volumes.

I tried and can't lose weight!
Eating is such an emotionally satisfying experience, but it is not just eating.  It is eating certain foods that release our stresses and makes us feel good.  Unfortunately, most of these types of foods are starchy or full of fat and make it so we can't lose weight.  Somehow raw veggies just don't cut it.  When we decide to diet, we usually start of with great hope but as we are slogging through day after day of watercress soup and bean sprouts we begin to feel something akin to claustrophobia,  As we think of the endless bleak days ahead of us before we will achieve our goals our resolve begins to slip.

Stop with the "...and I can't lose weight"
You can lose weight it is just that you haven't found the way yet.  When it comes to emotional eating we need to find a way to compromise with our emotions.  Relying on will power alone...well look where that has gotten any of us.  If you can find a way to lose weight that doesn't rely on will power alone you can and will lose weight.

Try This!
There are relatively new ways to lose weight that do not rely on an iron will pushing bravely on through day after day of bleak culinary drudgery.  Now for every way there is to lose weight you will find a critic of that way, but I have come to the conclusion that there is no one best way to lose weight.  Instead there are individual best ways to lose weight and when you find yours, you will no longer lament, "I tried and can't lose weight." 

Caloric Cycling
The first way is caloric cycling.  This method involves varying the amount of calories you eat each day.  This keeps your body from stalling in its weight loss.  The Every Other Day Diet by Jon Benson is an example of this technique.  He has made some interesting twists such a no calorie counting SNAPP system and "Feed Days" where you get to eat the foods you want.  All of this not only allows you to continue losing weight but actually helps the process.  The EODD diet also gives you "feed days" to look forward to which makes the EODD diet very doable.

Intermittent Fasting
The second way to consider is intermittent fasting.  That is choosing certain days during the week to go without food and then eating normally during the rest of the week.  With this method you only need to get your will power up for a couple of days a week.  The Eat Stop Eat diet is an example of this type of weight loss.  Eat Stop Eat calls for fasting two 24 hour periods each week and then eating normally the rest of the week.

Whether you use caloric cycling like the EODD diet or intermittent fasting like Eat Stop Eat diet these unique approaches to dieting just might be the answer if you can't lose weight.