"Just diets don't work, if you want to lose weight you need a lifestyle change", this is what you have heard so many times in your sleep. But what is lifestyle change? How do you know when you have done one ? or what does a lifestyle change mean, feel or look like? There is no mystical wisdom one would get when "the change occurs" that tells when, what and how much to eat. Now if you are wondering whats the difference between a 'diet mentality' and a 'lifestyle mentality', then its nothing but simply a matter of perspective. Having the right perspective and sticking to it till the end makes all the difference in the world when it comes to achieving your goals, avoiding unnecessary suffering and hanging onto your achievements over the long haul.

Here are few ways in which diet differs from lifestyle.

1. Diet is nothing but a number game. The number might be on the scale or the number of calories you eat or the number of calories you burn. And success in terms of diet is measured in terms of how well you stick to the numbers you would have set for yourself.

When it comes to lifestyle everything is about you. Its about, your personal eating and physical activities, your goals and desires. Success here would be defined in terms of how, the changes you have made helps you feel about yourself.

2. Diet forces you to believe that reaching a certain weight or the mark you would have set for yourself is the key to finding happiness. On any good day if these numbers just mess a bit, it would be so upsetting.

Where as lifestyle teaches you that obesity is not problem but just a result of some problem. Instead of worrying about being obese,concentrating on the finding solutions for the problems responsible for being obese is what lifestyle points us to.

3. Diet means lots of changes. Changes in your eating techniques. Changes in the type of food intake. Start counting and measuring. So when you are on diet its not you who is working for you but the technique you are following. Once you reach your desired goal.. everything seems to go back to normal. Everything including your weight. And, so your problems solved with diet also seems to be fine until there.

Where as making a lifestyle change, not only involves an internal change but also a permanent change in eating, food and physical activity. Here you realise the primary concern is not the food intake or how much food you have but it is about how and why you eat.

If you are seriously thinking about reducing weight, it is important that just diet does not work. You should prepare yourself both mentally and physically to have a lifestyle change, which not only helps you in reducing weight, but also helps you stay fit healthy and fine in the long run.