Eat Well
Article

Think long term when planning a diet Although it might be tempting to focus on losing a certain amount of weight each week when starting a new diet, taking a long-term approach is more likely to lead to success. Achieving a weekly goal may give you a sense of success with your diet guide, but the failure to meet such a target is also likely to cause disappointment and damage your resolve.

Dietician Ursula Arens, a spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, says that not hitting a weekly target could cause a "complete collapse of your motivation". She believes that people on a diet should not weigh themselves more than once a week - and even that could be too frequent.

"A really long-term change of eating habits and lifestyle is what will be successful," Ms Arens explains. Instead of becoming enslaved by the scales, the expert recommends using other indicators, such as the feeling of your clothes, to gauge your progress.