If you’ve been on a starvation diet for a week and then eat more than you should have, you don’t have weak willpower. Nobody can stay on a weight loss diet for very long if they are constantly hungry.

The human body has dietary requirements that must be met in order for it to function correctly. Starvation diets don’t only deprive the body of calories, but they also deprive the body of needed nutrients.

Successful weight loss diets are diets that are well balanced and that provide the body with all of the nutrients needed to function properly. Successful weight loss diets are so appetite satisfying that sticking with the diet isn’t painful. The diet doesn’t make hunger your constant companion.

The idea is to keep the food, lose the calories. And that goal might be easier to achieve than you think. Certain food gets a bad reputation. Take the lowly potato, for example. The potato is one of the healthiest of all foods; it’s loaded with vitamins and minerals, and it is very filling and satisfying.

A small baked potato (about two inches in diameter) has only about 130 calories in it. If all you put on that little baked potato is salt, it still has only about 130 calories. If, on the other hand, you add butter, sour cream, bacon bits, cheese, and lots of other goodies, the potato below still has only 130 calories, but all of that stuff on top adds another several hundred calories — and all of that extra stuff doesn’t actually add much volume that will help you to feel full.

Check out any one of the dozens of free calorie-counting charts that are online. You’ll find that many of the calories that you consume are actually calories that you can do without or for which you can find a lower-calorie substitute.