Six steps to diet success revealed

People hoping to lose weight in the weeks and months ahead have been advised to follow six fail-safe diet tips to help achieve their slimming goals.

The lifestyle advice site Handbag.com noted that it is easy to fall off the weight loss bandwagon, but the first step is being realistic, and this means eating less and being more active, which is obvious but something many people fail to grasp.

Secondly, keeping track of what you are eating is important, which means counting the nibbles while taking things out of the fridge, the biscuits with a cup of tea or the cheeky drink at the end of the day.

Thirdly, it is important to understand the nutritional value of things, which means not thinking that something small like a canapé is healthy, when it can be stuffed with fat.

The website's fourth tip is to be realistic when working out how to lose weight – so not setting unachievable goals or, equally, targets that can be easily met.

Fifth on the list is to stop treating food as a solution to things such as boredom and stress because, however much it seems like a good idea at the time, eating unhealthy things will cause even more upset in retrospect if a diet plan has been deviated from.

Finally, the source recommends being as healthy as possible earlier in life, as weight is something that is harder to control when you are older – so start now by breaking bad habits and setting the standard for a healthy existence.

How many of these six steps do you follow?