What's Your Diet Personality?

I recently took an online survey that promised to reveal my "diet personality." The creators of the test had assured me that my weight loss endeavors had probably failed because I had not yet tried the diet that best fits me. At first glance, this seemed like a gimmick, but after thinking about it, I realized there's a lot of truth in the test-maker's statement.

As I've mentioned many times in this blog, there are some things all dieters can do to up their chances of weight loss success: creating a buddy system, exercising more, planning meals in advance, and understanding food labels. What I now realize is that each of these self-help tips caters to different personality types.

For example, for those of us who need to control our environment, meal planning may be a great way to go. By reading food labels and planning extensive menus we gain complete control over our dieting efforts and can create meals to fit nearly any scenario. We may do best with a diet where we can count carbs or calories.

For those of you who enjoy social gatherings and being surrounded by friends, success may come from joining a group such as Weight Watchers where you can share thoughts and feelings about your efforts to lose weight.

In my role as a nutrition professional, I see that the concept of a diet personality reinforces the importance of individualizing diets for our clients. None of us has the same relationship to food or is motivated by the same things, so the same diet approach won't work equally well for all of us. Taking a cookie-cutter approach to nutrition and exercise will only set us up for failure.

It's important to try what feels most comfortable for you and stick with it. Just because your office mate lost 10 pounds on the latest fad diet doesn't mean you will, too.