While reading other weight loss blogs, I’ve noticed a lot of people hitting plateaus or just plain getting stuck.

Comment after comment describes frustration and sometimes outright desperation. Many of you aren’t sure what to do.

Obviously, every diet plan is different. But the basic principles for overcoming a weight loss problem are almost always the same, no matter what diet you’re on.

So here are my 3 weight loss tips to get you back on track with your diet plan:

Weight Loss Tip #1: Focus.

Don’t try to do everything at once or you’ll do nothing well. You want to make as few changes as possible to lose weight. At least at first.

The key to weight loss is calories. Everything else is secondary.

Depending on how your diet works, focus on getting your calories or portions under control through diet only. The specific foods you eat really don’t matter. So if you want a BLT, eat a BLT (you know who you are and I’d link to your post, but you deleted it).

You just want to get your weight loss started again.

Forget everything else for now. Calories or portion control always comes first.

If someone tells you that you have to exercise with your diet to lose weight, that’s not a diet plan. That’s desperation. It means the diet’s not working.

I recommend you exercise for your health. But for weight loss, the benefits of exercise should be a bonus. Not a necessary part of the plan.

That’s why you focus on diet first.

Also, if you try to change too many things at once, it becomes overwhelming.

Keep working on calories or portion control until it’s an automatic process. A habit. So easy, you don’t even have to think about it.

Then move on to the next thing you want to change. But again, focus on only one thing at a time. Make it routine before you move on.

It doesn’t matter whether your second goal is to start (or make changes to) an exercise program or to eat only certain types of food. One change at a time. Focus.

The more automated each step becomes, the more likely you are to succeed with your weight loss.

For the people on my diet plan, there’s only one required change. And I just told you about it. That’s why I show them how to cheat and lose weight.

Most people do it anyway, so why not make it part of the plan? Make it work for you.

I also give the dieters on my plan some extra tips to make weight loss easier and more enjoyable. But they’re specific to the I Love to Cheat lifestyle diet.

If your diet has tips like that, make sure you also put them into action. You want to make losing weight as easy as possible.

Weight Loss Tip #2: Identify Your Major Weaknesses & Overcome Them.

Most of us have only 1 or 2 major diet weaknesses. The same thing trips us up whenever we try to lose weight.

You can try to ignore that weakness… talk yourself into believing it’ll be different this time… but usually it’ll cause you to fall off your diet about halfway through. Maybe sooner.

On the other hand, if you eliminate that weakness or turn it into a strength, you’ve just tremendously increased your chances for success.

It’s like if your car has a constant coolant leak. Every time you go out, the car overheats and leaves you stranded in the middle of the highway. You can start on your journey, but you never make it to your destination.

Sure, other things can go wrong with your car from time to time, but you can address those issues as they happen.

If you know your car is breaking down constantly because of a bad coolant leak, don’t ignore it. Fix the leak. And the car will run smoothly for a heck of a lot more miles before you have another problem.

So just by fixing that one major problem, you’ve massively increased your chances of getting to your destination.

Same thing with weight loss.

Usually, your weakness is particular food cravings or a time of day when you always want to eat. You can only fight it for so long before falling off your diet.

My personal philosophy is to give in to it. Turn the weakness into a strength.

So if you like chocolate, put chocolate in your diet in satisfying amounts. Then you won’t go off your weight loss plan for chocolate.

If you like to snack at night, then schedule a satisfying snack or two for the evening hours. Same reasoning.

If your weaknesses are chocolate AND snacking at night, schedule a chocolate snack for night. Pretty simple, isn’t it?

I posted about this in more detail in “The Easy Way To Lose Weight.”

For the same reason, if you like to snack at night, there’s no need to worry about the morning. You’ve got that down.

Stay focused on what will help you the most.

Don’t try to fix everything at once. That’s what happens when you get caught up in eating only “healthy” foods. Most people can’t stick to it all the time.

Now you may protest that giving in to a particular food or eating at certain times violates the rules of your diet. But if you’re cheating, you’re not following those rules anyway.

So again, make it work for you.

There’s only one possible exception. If you crave a certain food that always makes you lose control — meaning you just can’t stop eating it once you start — then just eliminate that food from your diet.

Indulge your craving with something else. Just make sure you’re not hungry when you’re done.

Weight Loss Tip #3: Have A Specific Troubleshooting Plan.

Obviously, if you ate too much one week and you know you ate too much, you know why you gained weight that week.

But what if you think you’re doing everything right and you’ve either hit a plateau or you’ve gained weight? Do you know what to do?

Your diet provider should give you specific steps to diagnose the problem and get you back on track. Don’t let them leave you hanging.

If you’ve reached a plateau that lasts more than a week or two, it’s not acceptable for someone to tell you to just keep doing what you’re doing. Obviously, that’s not working.

I give my dieters a set of 8 troubleshooting suggestions, tips on which ones to try first, and exactly what to do if none of the 8 work. Because that suggests that they need to make a larger change which I outline for them as well.

I also provide sample Troubleshooting Menus to get them back on track if they can’t seem to do it themselves.

And if none of that works, they know they can contact me for help.

Unfortunately, my troubleshooting suggestions and sample menus are specific to my diet. So if won’t help you for me to post them.

But whatever diet you’re on, you need to know exactly how to diagnose your problem and fix it. If you can’t figure it out yourself, contact your diet provider and insist they help you.

Don’t blindly try new exercise programs or jump from diet to diet hoping something will work.

It might work for a week or two, but then you’ll find yourself in the same situation.

If your diet provider won’t help you, then look for one who will.

One final note: These are obviously my opinions. There are as many ways to lose weight as there are to gain it. But I think most problems can be fixed with these tips. Whatever you decide, don’t give up. Find the plan that works for you. And make sure your doctor approves.