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Though counting calories and measuring portions doesn’t bring smiles to most people’s faces, many people follow such dieting measures because they believe it will improve their health.

But in a Study it was found that, if you’re looking to achieve long-term health improvements, behavior changes and self-acceptance are more effective than dieting any day of the week.

In the study of 78 obese women, aged 30-45, half were assigned to a dieting group, which focused on counting calories and fat content, restricting food consumption and monitoring their weight.

The other half were assigned to a non-dieting group that focused on paying attention to internal body cues about hunger, letting go of restrictive “diet-like” eating habits and working with negative self-image. After two years, the researchers found:

• Non-dieters total cholesterol increased initially, then significantly decreased (including levels of their bad LDL cholesterol), while dieters had no significant change in cholesterol levels.
• Non-dieters reported nearly four times more physical activity, while dieters, although going through an initial increase in activity, had not sustained increased activity by the end of the study.
• 92 percent of the non-dieting group stayed with the study, while 42 percent of the dieters dropped out.
• Non-dieters maintained the same weight; dieters lost weight initially but regained almost all of it by the end of the study.
• While both groups significantly lowered their blood pressures initially, the non-dieters sustained this change while the dieters did not.

“We have been ingrained to think that large people can only make improvements in their health if they diet and slim down,” said one of the study’s researchers, Linda Bacon, “But this study tells us that you can make significant improvements in both metabolic and psychological health without ever stepping on the scales or counting calories. You can relax about food and eat what you want.”

How to be Healthy Without Dieting

So, what is the secret of being healthy and loosing weight without Dieting ? Of course, getting regular physical activity and eating healthy foods is important, but so are the following, often overlooked, components.

1. Get to Know your Eating Patterns

For example, if you tend to overeat when you’re stressed , then make adjustments based on them. If you know you tend to overeat when you’re overwhelmed, make it a point to keep yourself busy with another activity (even something relaxing like reading or taking a bath) during this time.

“When you examine your own weight-loss patterns, you can then identify potential methods and tools that will work for you long term,” says Robert Kushner, M.D., medical director of the Wellness Institute at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

2. Focus on making small changes in your lifestyle, not on losing weight

For Example, instead of thinking, “I have to lose 10 Kg,” think, “Today I’m going to take a pass on the bread and butter and go for a walk after dinner.”

“Add one or two healthy behaviors to your regular routine, and you’re done for the day,” says James O. Hill, Ph.D., an obesity researcher at the University of Colorado at Denver.

3. Stay positive

Think of the lifestyle changes you are making in terms of the benefits they will bring you (more energy, better health, etc.), not of what they are taking away. Give yourself some credit for every positive step you make (eating fruit for desert instead of a piece of cake, for instance) and try to get your entire family involved in this new, healthier lifestyle.

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