There are libraries and bookstores full of diet solutions. There are
websites with solutions. The information is out there and much of it works,
if you follow it. The problem is following it, investing yourself,
committing to a plan and doing it, letting nothing deter you. Most of us
have years of diet failure behind us because we depended too heavily on  the
diet rather than developing the psychology that bonds us to change.

There is such a thing as "diet fit," finding  the right diet for the
individual, but the diet strategy is a tool, and tools alone don't do the
job. We do.

The best diets out there, South Beach and Zone, use body chemistry to the
dieter's advantage, but as good as those diets are, people  fail them
because they're not willing or able to alter their psychology and change
over a length of time.

The study I cited demonstrates the effectiveness of "lifestyle change" on
diet success.  But lifestyle change is easy to say, but hard to do.
Emotional/psychological enertia keeps us in the same harmful but  familiar
rut. Moving ourselves out of that rut  can require a strong counter emotion
like a fear of negative consequences if we don't change.

Even with that strong emotion, many people can't make the change. The
problem for  them is  to find a strategy that, unlike the diet, works
successfully on their head and heart, not their just their body.

The average successful  religious cult leader with an 8th grade education
knows how to effect change in people.  What do they use?  Emotion, lifestyle
change, confession, testimonials, verbalization of commitment,
visualization, and ego bonding to the new behavior.

If we've had years of diet failure and have become committed to the idea
that the problem is hopelessly complex and beyond us, we've invested in
permanent failure and our egos fight to maintain that losing position.

Those with strong intellects may be more adept at maintaining the losing
position than some of us simpler folks.