More often than not when you're seeking weight loss information online, you come across a bunch of fad diets. These are the diets which tell you how much bodyweight you can lose by eating only cabbage soup, or maple syrup and lemonade or some other noxious kind of food that nobody who really likes themselves would ever try to eat.



As a matter of fact these diets are among the most highly searched for topics on the entire web. They are extremely popular for one specific reason - they bring you almost instant results in dropping a few pounds. They do work to get a couple pounds off immediately, within a week for many of them. 



However, guess what happens? The extra weight all comes back with a vengeance and sometimes those pounds you lost bring their friends back to stay with you and you end up weighing even more than you did when you began the crash diet.



This kind of weight reducing program does not keep you healthy and does not result in keeping the weight off forever. You end up bouncing up and down in weight and your whole metabolism suffers. And when your metabolism suffers it always does so in the same way - it decelerates and puts a stop to burning calories.



That is why you will get the weight back.



Listed here are a couple of things you can do to help achieve a more long term weight reduction.



Stop eating so much - but don't stop all at once



People love to penalize themselves for dietary transgressions. But punishing does not help much. If you simply stop feeding your body, it will not know what to do and simply slows down your metabolism to a crawl. Much better if you cut your calorie consumption gradually. Start eating less a little bit at a time, so your body gets accustomed to running on the calories it already has stored away.



Gradual weight loss with a diet change that is not a crash kind of diet is a lot more effective for many more people than those fad diets. Do you really want to be eating cabbage soup three times a day for the remainder of your life?



Another important tip is very simple, and works very effectively.



Give yourself a reward for losing weight.



This doesn't mean that when you lose a pound that you hop in the car and run right over to Cheesecake Factory and gorge yourself. A reward is supposed to be a nice thing you do for yourself, not something which is virtually certain to make you feel bad all over again. That's not what you need.



Instead you can give yourself a pleasant treat like a spa day, or a trip to the local mall without the kids or anything else you enjoy. And if you like, you can give yourself a food treat. In a normal sized portion. A square of chocolate - not a 5 pound box. Split a piece of cheesecake with your friend - don't order two for yourself.



Rewards are excellent things to do for yourself. Just don't overdo the reward system or you will wind up punishing yourself all over again.



Slimming down does not have to be tough or painful. But you do have to make a couple of changes in how you think and behave. Forget about punishing yourself, that didn't work before and it won't work now. Instead cut your calories gradually and give yourself a little reward when you have great results and you will be well on your way to lasting weight loss.