You know how to count the calorie content of every food, you know when to eat carbs and when to avoid them, you “get” that eating too much sugar can lead to diabetes…And yet you still overeat.

The problem of reaching and maintaining your ideal weight has little to do with a lack of knowledge. In fact, I would be willing to bet that most people who struggle with their weight know more about eating well and how to live a healthy life than the person.

Information on HOW to eat right is everywhere – just type “Healthy Dieting” into your computer’s search engine and you will get a list of over 15 million sites to read through.

The real question is WHY…why do you continue to eat in a way that sabotages your efforts? Why do you diet all week just to blow it on the weekend? Why do you stop going to the gym even though you were convinced that if you paid for the whole year up front you would stay dedicated? Why do stress and worry derail you so easily from your plan?

Finding the answer to the question WHY requires the examination of your beliefs. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it.” This is true. You might be telling yourself you want to lose weight; yet, inside your head you’re thinking “I will never be able to do it.” It is these deep-rooted thoughts and beliefs that determine if you will reach your goal; not your ability to rattle off the number of calories in a McDonald’s cheeseburger.

Constantly seeking to become more knowledgeable about how to lose weight by reading more diet books, asking friends for their dieting ideas, paging through magazine articles on how to eat and surfing the internet for that magic bullet can give you a sense that you are actively doing something to solve your weight problem but in reality these activities are just busy work and interfere with your ability to take effective action.

Action is the bridge between knowing how to lose weight and achieving results. Zig Ziglar said, “It is not what you’ve got, it’s what you use that makes the difference.” You’ve already got enough to get started. You do not need to know how the whole journey will go; instead trust that the answers will come as you continue to take the steps that lead to your goal.

Success will come when you shift your energy away from learning about diets to learning about yourself.

Learning about yourself means discovering what your current thoughts and beliefs are about your weight and your body. Do you tell yourself things like, “I have been heavy all of my life, I will never be thin.” This type of limiting mindset must change if you hope to lose and maintain a significant amount of weight.

What you believe is a choice. You can choose to believe that you are capable of losing weight and that you deserve the benefits of living a happy and healthy lifestyle or you can choose to believe you can’t, both lead to results but only the former leads to the results you want.

Weight loss requires a proper mindset along with a good diet and regular exercise. To start seeing the results you desire you need to put as much energy into building a strong belief in yourself as you do into learning about the next new diet plan. Creating this new mindset will reduce your need for willpower and make losing weight a reality for you.