by Helene Dadoune

Created on: July 09, 2007

The biggest myth of all connected with taking off those unwanted pounds - is that there's one "reducing diet", regimen of exercise purported to be conducive to weight loss or dietary supplement/replacement that's "guaranteed to work for everyone". For the same reason that each of us has a unique personality, each of us has a different body-type, a different bone-structure and a different metabolism, which means that we each process the foods we eat at a slightly different speed than anyone else. What's that reason? Well, for one thing, if we were all identical - in appearance, in personality and so on - we would have one more common thread among us: we'd all be bored silly with one another! Those differences do also mean, though, that what might be the ideal weight loss regimen for "the best-friend who has just texted you the details, while you were out grocery shopping" - may not help you take weight off, at all. In fact, trying out "someone else's ideal diet" might even do more harm than good. For this reason, apart from the few tips I'll be giving here, shortly, which will pretty much hold true - and work - for anyone trying them - the best way to start out a weight loss plan - is with a visit to a doctor, to talk things over.

As a person of small stature, at only five feet tall, with proportionately small hands and feet (my shoe size ranges from a Girls' size 4 to a Women's size 6, depending on the style and manufacturer's sizing guidelines) - I've always been very conscious of "excessive upswings in scale read-out", like the weight gain that happens during a trip away from home, recovery from a broken leg - or a pregnancy - so that I am addressing this issue from personal experience. (Trust me on this one; trying to carry fifty-six additional pounds - all positioned directly in front of you, at your body's center-point - your "gut" - isn't easy to pull off, when your foot is only a Girls' size four; I spent the last two months of my pregnancy with my daughter walking with a cane, to prevent myself from falling forward and landing on my nose, every time I stood up!)

It is NOT a myth that the later in the day you eat, the more likely you'll be to retain the calories from that food - so that the food most likely to "stay with you, all the way to the scale, the next morning" - would be anything consumed before bed or, even more so, anything you "woke up, raided the refrigerator and ate", during the night. Rather than "taking my word for it, prove it to yourself.

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