Some of you may remember the survey we ran last year, to get statistics on various diets and how happy you are with them. Overall, we heard from around 10,000 dieters that followed South Beach, Atkins, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, LAWL, Curves, and eDiets. Among other things, we included questions about your cheating habits. We thought you might be interested in the results, in case it helps you stay on plan.
We quizzed both current and former South Beach Diet followers to see how their cheating habits affected their success and ability to stick to the plan. What we learned is that most people (75%) do cheat every now and then. Of that 75%, about 2/3 only cheated on rare occasions, such as holidays. The other third cheated a little more often, but still not on a regular basis. These numbers were about the same in both groups, former and current South Beachers.
The way they differed, though, was in counting how many people cheated regularly. Surprisingly, only 2% of successful South Beachers cheated regularly. On the other hand, 12% of the former South Beachers cheated regularly and were not able to stick to the plan long enough to reach their goals.
Based on the comments provided by the group, those that allowed themselves to cheat more often found it more difficult to stay on plan as their diets progressed. In a nutshell, it was harder to decide which cupcake or potato chip would be the last one.
Are you a cheater? We all do it, every now and then. We're human. But when you choose a diet plan that has specific lists of foods to choose from, like South Beach, then you need to stick to those lists if you want to be successful. If you don't like living off of food lists, there are a lot of other diets to choose from, which are equally as effective as South Beach. They're all good It's all about your personal tastes and what you can live with.
If you are posting in this forum, and have chosen South Beach, then we assume you have chosen to stick to the approved food lists. After all, that's what the South Beach Diet is. If you do slip up, it's ok. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back on plan. If it affected your weight loss, consider it a lesson learned, but don't complain about it. If it didn't affect your weight loss, consider yourself lucky, but don't get too relaxed or it may bite you hard later!
Do you have any tips to share that help you control your urge to cheat? If so, please post them here to help others.