I talk and work with women every day, and on any given day, half of them are on a “diet.” I am not talking about the woman who watches what she eats. I am speaking about the woman who drastically alters her life by going on a low-calorie or fad diet in order to lose weight quickly.

Some of the more famous diets used in this decade include Optifast, Medifast. Slim-Fast, the Cambridge Diet and the Beverly Hills Diet. (Incidentally, eating less than 1,200 calories a day also is considered a low-calorie diet.) These diets capitalize on a woman’s fear of being overweight and promise instant results, although most of the regimens have no scientific research for long term results, nor are they medically safe. Instead, these diet plans rely on the testimony of the people who have tried the products and have gotten short-term results.

What these kinds of diets actually do to a body is drastically lower metabolism (sum changes or reactions occurring in the body) by putting the body into starvation. When this happens, the body begins to store fat and, instead of losing fat weight, you begin to lose lean muscle mass (body weight minus the body fat). This diet mentality is comparable to that of an athlete who uses steroids to win, no matter what the price.

A lot of women make the decision to lose weight because they aren’t happy with themselves. They may have gained weight as a result of stress, depression, boredom, anger or frustration. A woman may not be in touch with the reasons she is overeating or binging. Food becomes the comfort that may temporarily relieve the emotional pain that she is feeling.

However, binging on fatty foods such as cake and candy may make her feel guilty, ultimately escalating her original pain. Her eating gets out of control, her clothes don’t fit and she may even isolate herself. As food consumption starts to be the focus of her world, turning to diets seems to be the way to “fix” all of these problems.

Dieting becomes the desperate attempt to get back in control. And the attempt to lose weight doesn’t come cheap: Some of these programs cost hundreds of dollars and are physically and emotionally draining. You eat, sleep and live for the diet because the focus is on food and/or calories. You believe this diet will be “different,” and your expectations are high. All of the diets that were tried in the past and failed no longer matter. These hopes are measured by the numbers on the scale and an increasingly thinner body.

Debra