You can have your cake and eat it to.

If you are someone that is fully in tune with your body, you listen to it to know when you are hungry, and when you are full you will be much healthier, and if you are active too, then you will also be fitter. I have come to understand just how big a failure our dieting mentality really is. The diet definition should be changes to meaning failure. Diets all fail at some point in time. Our bodies are not meant to be deprived of the foods they need. Our bodies are not meant to be deprived of the foods we enjoy. 

Anytime you deprive your body and yourself of the foods you love, and the foods your body needs you will fail at a diet and you will over eat. If you listen to your body and give it the foods it wants and needs you will come to a point of never over eating, or being heavier than what is correct for your body. Now, that does not always mean you will be at the weight you have been told you should weigh, because of some chart or calculator. It means that you will at some point weigh at what is correct for you gene pool. 

So how do you get to this point, first you do not restrict yourself from eating what you love, or what your body needs to function. Your body will tell you what you need to eat if you really listen to it. Yes, more than likely you may gain weight in the beginning, then you will start eating less than you were you will stop over eating, and you will start to lose weight. How long does this take? There is no easy answer, it depends on how long you have been dieting, And how long you have been depriving your body of the food it needs and wants. At first you will eat more than you have been and you will gain, they you slowly learn that you do not need that much to eat. Then you will slowly start losing the weight, if you are over weight by what your gene pool, age, etc determines that you should weigh. 

I have been slowly doing this since late June and I have lost to my lowest weight in in a very long time. I am even eating more than I was before but I am eating what my body needs. I do not allow myself to become hungry, and I do not allow myself to be stuffed. This at first is not that easy but as you learn yourself and listen to your body it becomes natural. 

Does this mean that you can eat anything you want? Yes! Does this mean you can eat all you want? I prefer to say you can eat all you need. This is about not depriving yourself of food. It means not setting goals for carbs, proteins, fats or calories. It means eating them all the way you need them. What is really means is as you come to understand that you are not limited or deprived of the foods you need or want you will come to eat them in moderation? What it really amounts to is freedom of choice and freedom to eat as needed, when needed and how much needed. Does this mean you will never have health or weight issues? In theory yes. 

Now you also need to be active with some kind of activity that you enjoy. And you also need to understand basic nutrition and eat health. But you never need to diet or say that awful word again.