by Michelle Wilkinson

Created on: January 17, 2009   Last Updated: February 06, 2010

Generally, the first thing a person does when they start putting on weight is to stop getting on the scales. After all, if you're fat, what difference does it actually make how fat you are? It is an easier option to bury your head in the sand and pretend that your weight is not an issue. However, there usually comes a breaking point, often when a person's health starts to suffer, when an individual may decide that something needs to be done about their weight, since it is much harder to ignore weight gain once it starts to impact upon your health.

Once a person has decided to lose weight, the first thing they usually do is step on the scales and hold their breath before looking down to see how bad it is. Usually it is worse than anticipated, and no matter how much we pretend there's something wrong with the scales we have to face up to the fact that we have put on far too much weight and that something needs to change. It is the scales that we look towards to give us guidance in our quest to lose weight, but they are not exactly a friend to a person who's trying to lose weight because even on a calorie-controlled diet weight can fluctuate, and when if it looks as if you may have gained weight, it makes it easier to simply throw in the towel.

After all, if you try so hard throughout the week only for the scales not to register any weight loss or even to gain weight, it is easy to lose motivation, and to think that you might as well eat what you like because it makes no difference. You might partake of a bar of chocolate, which turns into two when you start to think I might as well carry on eating; I can start again tomorrow'. Consequently, we jeopardise all that we may have already accomplished.

Losing weight requires eating healthily, eating less food, and doing more exercise. This is the only realistic way to lose weight, sustain weight loss, and to later maintain your weight. It is all too easy to fall into the trap of fad dieting where the initial weight loss is impressive, but the diet and exercise plan is often so restrictive that you can't keep up with it for very long. Soon you end up bingeing on the food you have denied yourself, often resulting in you putting on more weight than was lost in the first place. This is clearly not a sensible approach to weight loss. However, there is so much emphasis on weight loss according to the scales that it is easy to lose track of what is really important becoming healthier.

When you're on a diet you want to see

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