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Why is it that you are continually hearing a backlash against diets. It seems every time you turn around there is another person telling you that the diet industry is ripping you off, or that diet is a 4 letter word in which the three first letters spell D-I-E (who would of thought), and diets just don't work. For every person the word diet conjures up a different subtext, and this is what leads to generalized and erroneous statements.

The word 'diet', as defined by the dictionary, is a system of food; what a person habitually eats and drinks, and, a special course of feeding as to attain a daily allowance. Strange! Who would have thought that an industry that tells us what to eat and drink is ripping us off? For those of you who suffer from anxiety please excuse me if my sarcasm put you into panic mode. I mean after all could the diet industry, the trusted diet industry, really be putting your health at risk. Probably not...but YOU may be. Yep I just said it..YOU are probably putting your health at risk.

Why? Probably because you haven't done the nose-to-the-ground and get-your-hands-dirty type of fact finding you need to do before starting a diet. Wait...what is a diet? Therein lies the ultimate problem. Forget the diet basics, most people writing about diets are just as confused as the people trying to learn about diets.

You see, most country's have health organizations that purport to the generalized public a systematic way of eating as well as how much to consume on a daily basis. Have we heard of a food pyramid, food groups, or even the word serving size! My problem is this. Most authors focus on quick and easy diets that fail. They tell you that diets just don't work while at the same time telling you a few things that you should be doing to lose weight. If diets don't work than we shouldn't have the need to eat or drink or take any course of action to consume food? (psst look at the above definition of diet).

You see the word diet conjures up the notion of LOSING WEIGHT but it should embody what its true definition entails. If you have read the definition of diet you now know that it is a system of eating and drinking that we habitually become accustomed too. People are failing not the diet industry. Are there unscrupulous people in the diet industry trying to make a quick buck by telling you how to lose weight'Well...I have bad news for you. They're not telling you lies or tricking you; you can lose weight and melt away fat by manipulating your consumption of food, but what does losing weight have to do with the word diet?

Are you confused yet?? If you have been looking at magic weight loss plans that promise miracles you'd be surprised to learn that most are telling the truth (well not too sure about the miracle thing). Here lies my other problem; at what cost is their truth to your health? The truth is that these weight loss systems do work for a short period of time...

They work all right but you'll gain the weight back! They are not a means to a successful end. This is where the truth is twisted, but you can avoid all of this twisted confusion by educating yourself. The first line of defense is to go out on the attack and be proactive. If you're going to win this weight loss battle once and for all, if you're finally going to figure out whether this diet regime or that diet regime will work, if you're finally going to be successful and happy, you have to stop listening to opinion and start gathering the facts.

Where to begin this journey can be a daunting task, but equipped with the right information it doesn't have to be. Remember, knowledge is power. Before you start focusing on changing your systematic way of eating and drinking, as well as changing your habits, you need to make sure that your change is simple and do-able.

Wait! Are we talking about weight loss or diet? Do you see where the confusion lies? Weight loss can be achieved by manipulating YOUR diet (remember the definition), but diet and weight loss are two different issues with two very different meanings. Know the FACTS!

**The intent of this article is to show you that there is a difference between what a diet is and what weight loss is. As you can gather the word diet has nothing to do with weight loss beyond being it being a means that can be manipulated to achieve an end.