Let’s face it – losing weight is no simple task.  If it were, we’d surely see fewer people struggling to get their weight down and keep it off.  Taking in fewer calories than you spend every day sounds like a simple enough formula, but counting calories accurately – both the ones that you eat and the ones that you burn – takes considerable practice. 

 On top of the calorie counting problem, I’ve found many dieters – with good intentions, mind you – who make critical mistakes when it comes to devising their own health plans.  So when patients tell me they can’t lose weight, it’s often because they’re committing a few of these common dieting mistakes.

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We make more than 250 decisions about food every single day. Every time you open the refrigerator, watch a TV commercial, eye a billboard, or observe a friend or co-worker eating – in every instance, whether you’re aware of it or not, you’re making a decision to eat or not to eat. But what sways us to choose or not to choose? Is it taste or hunger? Cost or convenience? How or where we were raised? With so many factors that influence our food choices, it’s a wonder that we ever eat consistently at all.

For most of us, by the time we’ve reached adulthood, we’ve established a pretty basic inventory of foods that we eat day in and day out. Sure, you might arrange them differently into a variety of meals and snacks, or mix it up occasionally at a restaurant – but I’ll bet if I asked you what you typically eat, you could probably give me a fairly good picture of your usual diet.

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Yes, you can pack on five pounds between now and January – and it’s easier than you might think. Most people only add a pound or two over the holidays, but when you look at what a few extra indulgences can cost you, the calories add up fast. To gain five pounds, you’ll need to take in an extra 17,500 calories or so between now and January Here’s how to get the job done.

First, turn the clock back a couple of weeks – to October 31. The average Halloween bucket holds about 250 pieces of candy at about 35 calories each. If you’re like most people, you bought too much – so you’ve been putting away a couple of pieces a day for the last two weeks. That’s given you a 1000 calorie head start.

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When I was little, there was a guy down the street who bucked the Halloween candy trend, and instead pulled quarters from behind our ears. His place was really popular, but he also knew all the kids in the neighborhood, so we all knew that one quarter was the limit – no circling the block and coming back for more. But now it seems that in this era of supersizing – where more is always better and there are almost no limits – we’ve managed to supersize Halloween, too. 

No longer is it just about scary costumes and fun with friends and family. The focus seems to be more on who can collect the most candy. I don’t recall exactly what I used to carry my loot, but I’m positive it wasn’t a pillowcase – which, thanks to its light weight and large size, seems to be the preferred method for hauling Halloween booty.

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Fads – whether they’re in food or fashion – usually have a very short life span.  But there’s one diet craze that just doesn’t seem to go away.  Apple cider vinegar has been touted as a weight loss remedy for as long as I can remember. 

When I was first studying nutrition in college (and this was 30 years ago), the use of weight loss vinegar was in full swing. I distinctly remember the rather twisted bit of logic that was offered up in vinegar’s defense – it was said that since vinegar and oil don’t really mix, that vinegar and body fat shouldn’t mix, either.  The leap from salad dressing to slimming was never explained, but millions were swept up by the virtues of apple cider vinegar, and – if Internet posts are to be believed – the apple cider vinegar fad still has millions of adherents today.

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