You've seen the testimonials. The picture of the obviously obese person who morphed into a thin, fit Adonis along with a story of how they lost their weight eating nothing but pork and cheese.

The next picture shows a similarly obese person who also managed to turn into the picture of health and fitness and they explain how they did it eating nothing but rice and vegetables. So what gives?

Regardless of the eating strategy you research, there will be many people who will have lost weight while doing it. It doesn't matter if it's a mainstream diet or a completely wacky one, rest assured that there will be examples of people who reached their weight goals while following it.

The fact of the matter is that when you examine people who have been successful at losing weight, the diet is the least of what they have in common. What particular diet you choose in order to beat your weight problem is not the most important job that's facing you.

What all weight loss successes have in common is that they experience a significant shift in their thinking prior to losing weight. This is so important because for every dieter that's ever attempted to lose a pound, if this internal shift does not happen, failure at the diet attempt is certain.

Once the mental/emotional shift in the mind has happened then it's all downhill from there. Executing an eating and exercise plan once your head is on straight is quite easy. It's amazing how what used to be so difficult in the past all of a sudden becomes almost effortless. The reason why diets have been so difficult in the past is because of the internal pressure that is applied from our mind that wants to keep us fat. Trying to "white knuckle" it through a diet when you are not emotionally or mentally ready to lose weight is a painful, exhausting and frustrating experience. Once the mental/emotional barriers are removed however, then executing an eating and exercise plan becomes fun and energizing.

So does diet even matter when trying to lose weight? Yes, but not as much as you might think. Once the mental/emotional side of things has been addressed and you are prepared to let go of your weight problem then it's just a matter of picking a diet plan that works for you. Some people do great on high protein and some don't. Some people do wonderfully on high complex carbohydrates and low protein and some don't. It's not a one-size-fits-all world and our metabolisms are the same way.

The only way to know for sure which diet is best for you is to try different combinations of eating and observe how they make you feel and whether or not you begin to lose weight. The nuances of this process I'll explain in another article but for now, suffice to say that before you even get to the point where you're choosing your diet, you must spend some time working on the inside so that you'll even let yourself succeed in the first place. Skip this step and the diet won't even matter because you won't stick with it.