When it comes to nutrition, it’s easy to spend a lot of time worrying about what to eat. Just as weight gain is caused by eating more calories than you burn, the only way to lose weight is to eat fewer calories than what you burn. People can cut back on calories and lose weight on almost any diet, as long as they stick to it. The real challenge is finding a way to keep weight off over the long run.

Low-fat weight loss strategies don’t work for most people. Low-fat diets are routinely promoted as a path to good health. But they haven’t fulfilled their promise. One reason is that many people have interpreted the term “low-fat” to mean “It’s OK to eat as much low-fat food as you want.” For most people, eating less fat has meant eating more carbohydrates. To the body, calories from carbohydrates are just as effective for increasing weight as calories from fat.

Low-carbohydrate, high-protein strategies look promising in the short term. Another increasingly common approach to weight loss is eating more protein and less carbohydrate. Some of these diets treat carbohydrates as if they are evil, the root of all body fat and excess weight

* Regularexercise or physical activity can do everyone a world of good. It helps prevent heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, and a host of other diseases, and is a key ingredient for losing weight or maintaining a healthy weight.