By Gloria Chandy

Forget about that fad diet. Just eat less. This is basic arithmetic, yet how many of us ignore it and opt for quick-fix solutions in an attempt to lose excess weight?

British dietitians, eschewing fad diets, said last week that simply eating less food, but maintaining a balanced diet, will help you shed the flab. It will also neither compromise your well-being nor threaten your health by depriving you of essential nutrients. (read more)

Only healthy eating, activity and - most importantly - long-term behaviour change work and help you maintain weight loss. The British Dietetic Association (BDA) made a list of what it considers the worst fad diets.

These include the maple syrup, blood group, warrior, peanut butter and banana and the cabbage/fat-burning soup diets.

The maple syrup diet, which singer Beyonce claimed helped her lose about 10kg for her role in the movie Dreamgirls, is not as sweet as it sounds. It is not about eating but fasting - and drinking a mixture of lemon juice, maple syrup, water and Cayenne pepper.

To avoid constipation, dieters have laxative tea at night and give themselves a top-down enema in the morning by drinking almost a litre of lukewarm sea salt water.

In the warrior diet, one eats little during the day and like a warrior at night. Ex-military man Ori Hofmekler, who devised it, says he eats three square meals a day - all in the evening. Granted this is only for the physically fit, but is food overload at any time, and particularly at night, a good idea?

The BDA message echoes what numerous dietitians and doctors have been saying all along. Losing the calories in a hurry can result in nutritional deficiencies.

There is also no point in trying to lose weight just to fit into a dress for a party or to look slimmer on your wedding day.

Once you have achieved your objective and stop dieting, you may well return to your old habits and pig out. Then you are likely to put on even more weight because you think you are out of the woods.

There are no fat-burning miracle foods either, dietitians keep pointing out. Only physical activity can do that.

So, if you are desperate to shed some kilos, be warned that there is no quick way to do it while staying healthy.

Successful weight loss takes months, maybe years, and the first thing we need to do is to change not the way we eat, but our mindset.

This article was first published in Mind Your Body, The Straits Times.