"The review of 30 research papers involving thousands of slimmers found that though many of them succeed in shedding pounds while dieting, they pile the weight back on as soon as they stop, with most ending up heavier than they did to start with."

"The University of California scientists who conducted the review, published in the journal American Psychologist, say this kind of yo-yo dieting may also be damaging to health. Research has shown repeated rapid weight gain and loss may increase the risk of heart disease, heart attacks and premature death."

"Yes - unless you have serious amounts of will-power. One-in-four people in Britain are said to be dieting to lose weight at any one time, making resolutions they will certainly break within days, weeks or months. They expend large amounts of energy and huge amounts of money buying special foods, joining diet clubs and counting calories."

"They will suffer from the constant hunger and the loss of one of life's great pleasures - eating - and when they fail, as most ultimately will, they will feel guilt and self-hatred. The Californian scientists found only a small minority successfully lost weight and kept it off over the five year duration of the study."

"The moral is do not waste time deciding which diet to follow. Lo carb or no carb, high or low fat, protein rich or poor - it makes no difference. It is not the diet that determines how much weight you lose but the rigour with which you follow it."

"Simple - eat less and exercise more. There is no other way of losing weight. All diets - and there are zillions of them - are designed to help dieters eat less. Some diets claim to alter metabolism so you burn calories faster or absorb them more slowly. But if there is any effect on metabolism - and it is disputed - the effect is minimal. The reason for the obesity explosion in Britain, where an estimated 27 million adults are obese or overweight, and across the western world is that an energy imbalance has built up as we consume more and do less. Over the past 30 years consumption of calorie-rich fast foods and sugary snacks has risen while energy expenditure has declined with the increase in sedentary work and car use. The result is seen in ever-expanding waistlines that can only be curbed by cutting calorie intake to match reduced energy spent."

"The unacknowledged principle behind most diets is to make eating difficult. As there is only one way to lose weight - by eating less - inventors of diets have had to come up with ways of getting people to do this without noticing. Some diets require elaborate preparation, or are extraordinarily unappetising or bound by rigid rules. The aim is the same - to reduce the amount of calories consumed."

"It may be - especially for the young. Teenage girls, driven to covet size zero fashions, are at greatest risk of taking dieting to extremes. One-in-100 girls aged 15 to 25 is said to suffer form the eating disorders anorexia and bulimia, which may have lifelong effects and in rare cases lead to death. Extreme dieting is dangerous for adults, too, depriving them of essential nutrients and leading to excessive consumption of certain foods in unhealthy amounts."

"More than 45 million copies of the Atkins diet books have been sold since the 1970s making it the most successful diet of all time. The Atkins diet recommends unlimited consumption of butter, fatty meat and high fat dairy products while carbohydrate intake is restricted to 30 grams a day, equivalent to a small potato. Although research suggests it is safe and effective at promoting weight loss in the short term - calorie for calorie, protein appears to be more satisfying and thus better at curbing appetite, than fat or carbohydrate - this is a diet practically guaranteed to induce heart disease in the long term."

"Research shows that people who have stuck with the diet for more than a year
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