Fat Loss Diets Not Just for Fat Loss

A key factor to maintaining the fat you have lost is not to have 'dieting' vs. 'regular eating' mentality. If you are on a properly structured fat loss diet then you will be eating a lot of the same foods, in the same ways that you would if you weren't dieting. The main difference is just portion size. Martha Shulman at the NYT Health blog posted about this inadvertently while talking about how she likes cottage cheese.

Most days, I make a quick, no-nonsense lunch out of cottage cheese and vegetables — tomatoes and cucumbers in the summer, avocado and/or leftover cooked vegetables (roasted sweet potatoes are a favorite) when summer gives way to fall. Friends have accused me of eating “diet food,” but I take great pleasure in these lunches. Besides, I’m never on a diet.

This kind of mental shift is very liberating and essentially eliminate the yo-yo effect of dieting because you don't see yourself as on or off.  Check out my post on Stage 4 Surges for more on this topic (the Stage 4 Surge idea is more about tightening your dietary control rather than drastically changing your diet).