More often than not when you're trying to find weight loss tips online, you come across a bunch of fad diets. These are the diets which tell you how much excess weight 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 probably the most highly searched for topics on the entire internet. They are very popular for one particular reason - they bring you almost instant results in dropping a few pounds. They actually do work to get some weight off immediately, within a week for many of them. 



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



This sort of weightloss program does not keep you healthy and does not result in keeping the weight off once and for all. You end up bouncing up and down in weight and your entire metabolism suffers. And when your metabolism suffers it always does so in the same way - it slows down and stops burning calories.



That is why you will get the weight back.



Here are a couple of things you can do to help obtain a more long lasting weight loss.



Stop eating so much - but do not stop all at once



People like 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 just slows your metabolism to a crawl. Much better if you cut your calorie consumption gradually. Start eating less a bit at a time, so that your body gets accustomed to running on the calories it already has stored away.



Progressive weight loss with a diet change that is not a crash type of diet is much more successful for many more people than any of those fad diets. Do you really want to be eating cabbage soup three times a day for the rest of your life?



Another essential tip is very simple, and works very successfully.



Give yourself a reward for losing weight.



This does not 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 should really be a nice thing you do for yourself, not something which is practically guaranteed to make you feel bad all over again. That's not what you need.



Instead you can give yourself a nice treat like a spa day, or a trip to the mall without the kids or anything else you enjoy. And if you prefer, 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 - do not order two for yourself.



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



Shedding pounds does not have to be rough or painful. But you do have to make a couple of changes in how you think and act. No more punishing yourself, that didn't work before and it won't work now. Instead reduce your calories gradually and give yourself a small reward when you succeed and you will be on the right path to lasting weight loss.