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For someone who is overweight, giving up their poor nutritional choices is like giving up any other addictive behavior, it can be virtually impossible to succeed. In fact many people spend their entire lives going from one weight-loss program to another in search of the perfect plan. So, what is the best diet plan?

Finding the best diet plan can be time consuming, and if you're not sure what you're looking for, you can waste time and money on diet plans that won't work for you. If you are serious about accomplishing your goal, a little research may save you time and exasperation later.

But shopping for the best diet plan is like shopping for shoes. What works for one person, won't work for another. What fits in perfectly with my lifestyle might be impossible to handle in yours. Diets are not 'One Size Fits Size">All'. So, what is the best diet plan and how do you find the plan that suits your body type and lifestyle best?

First let's think about the things we do know. There are lots of things we know about our bodies that are the same for everyone. We know we shouldn't skip meals. Fewer but larger meals will slow down your metabolism, and eating more often but eating less will keep your metabolism stoked.

In addition to aiding your metabolism, eating more often also helps to keep your blood sugar level. So we need a diet plan with at least three, but preferably four meals a day.

Because we all have a duke's mixture in our ancestry, very few of us know what type foods actually satisfy our body. While some bodies respond better with a higher amount of carbohydrates, other bodies are more satisfies with more protein.

If you are a person who needs more protein to be satisfies, and you go on a low-fat diet, you are going to be constantly hungry. By contrast, if you are a person who needs more carbohydrates and you go on a low carb diet, you will feel weighed down by food and constipated.

In either case, you are not likely to stay committed to any diet plan if you are constantly hungry, bloated or constipated. You are destined to fail. You need the best diet plan for you.

So take a few days to find out whether your body needs more carbohydrates or more protein. Tomorrow for lunch eat a nice healthy meal, with equal amounts of protein and carbohydrates. No simple carbohydrates (ie, no cookies, crackers, white bread, potatoes or sugar), if you have bread, it must be whole wheat and no sodas or fruit juices of any kind. And last but not least, don't over eat.

Then one hour after lunch, write down how you feel and what you ate. Do you feel grand, or are you hungry, sleepy, tired, bloated, grumpy or do you have a stuffy nose. Do the same thing two hours after lunch and then again three hours after lunch. If you messed up and ate too much (be honest) any results you get today will probably be incorrect, so you'll need to start again tomorrow.

If you wrote down sleepy, tired or hungry at any of the intervals (and didn't over eat) tomorrow, try having a little more protein and a little less carbohydrates percentage wise. If you were bloated or grumpy, try for a few more carbohydrates and less protein. And if you had a stuffy nose, you might want to omit dairy products if you had any, or wheat.

Your goal is to feel satisfied, energetic and well able to coop with your afternoon. If you feel sluggish, bloated, hungry, tired or out of sorts after lunch you may resort to extra caffeine, snacks or you may just suffer through, making mistakes you could have avoided if you'd felt better.

Continue over the next few days, eating more or less of either carbohydrates or protein, until you find the combination that leaves you feeling satisfied, but not overly full; alert and ready to finish your day.

So what does this tell us? If you need more carbohydrates, you will probably do best on a low fat diet. This type diet will give you the carbohydrates your body craves. If you need more protein or are a diabetic, you should look at a low-carb diet. This will help balance your blood sugar and keep you from feeling hungry all the time.

Learning what is the best diet plan for you may take a few days, but it will be time well spent if it helps you succeed in your quest to find a healthy lifestyle for a lifetime.