It’s amazing, really. You see people who are grossly overweight set out to lose a lot of weight, and in a relatively short period of time. These “contestants” live in a vacuum that can’t come anywhere close to emulating real people out there in the real world who are dieting and exercising in an effort to lose unwanted pounds.

The “contestants” (I don’t know what else to call them.) are surrounded by doctors, dieticians, fitness instructors, and other professionals 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Professionals are in charge of meal planning, portion control, and exercise regimes.

There have been reports that the TV audience isn’t treated to what REALLY goes on behind the scenes, like vomiting, purging, and use of strong diet suppressants and diuretics. The networks, of course, deny these allegations vigorously.

My main objection to these reality weight loss television programs is that viewers can be “tricked” into believing that they can accomplish the same amazing results at home. They can’t. Those of us who live out here in the “real” world have families, jobs, relationships, and hundreds of other distractions. Nobody prepares our meals for us, and nobody controls portion sizes except us. We don’t have a registered dietician on call. We don’t have a personal trainer that we can depend upon at any hour of the day or night, either.

Things are a bit different out here in the real world, where diet and exercise programs are a lot harder to stick to.

There are two types of dietary fiber:

* Insoluble Fiber: Insoluble fiber facilitates the movement of food through your digestive system and increases bulk in the stool. Insoluble fiber can be a big benefit for those who have problems with constipation or irregular bowel movements. Good sources of insoluble fiber are whole-wheat flour, wheat bran, nuts, and many fruits and vegetables.

* Soluble Fiber: Soluble fiber dissolves in water. Digested soluble fiber forms a gel-like material. Soluble fiber is really good for the human body. It can help lower blood cholesterol and glucose levels. You can find large quantities of soluble fiber in oats, peas, beans, apples, citrus fruits, carrots, and barley.

The ideal high-fiber diet contains both insoluble and soluble fiber-rich foods as well as a plenty of water.

The health benefits offered by a high-fiber diet are many. One of the most important advantages of eating a high-fiber diet is that it lowers the risk of digestive track disorders such as hemorrhoids, irritable bowel syndrome, and diverticular disease. A high-fiber diet also lowers total cholesterol.

A high-fiber diet for weight loss or weight control offers many advantages as well. High-fiber foods have fewer calories by bulk than non-fiber foods, so you get to eat longer and feel satisfied longer using a high-fiber diet. High-fiber foods require more chewing and so give your body time to get the idea that you are no longer hungry, so you eat less naturally.

Here is how I did it:

1. Weigh yourself once each week at the same time of day. Do NOT weigh any more often than once a week, and if you stand the suspense, two-week intervals would be better. (Success breeds success! If you lost two pounds without going hungry this week, you gain the confidence and believe that you can lose two more pounds next week.)

2. Buy yourself a good calorie-counting book, or find a place on the Internet where portion sizes and caloric contents for all kinds of food is listed — including fast food.

3. Keep a journal! This is possibly the most important tip of all. If you don’t know where you’ve been, you won’t know where you are going. Plan your meals in advance and then list what you actually ate, when you ate it, why you ate it, and how eating made you feel. (When you know yourself, you can control yourself.)

4. Embark on a reasonable exercise program. “Reasonable” is the key word. If you can walk 15 minutes every day, that’s great. If you walk longer, further, and faster, that’s even better. But you do have to actually DO it.

5. Set goals! Goals come in two varieties — long term and short term. A long-term weight goal is the total number of pounds you want to lose buy a given date (you must be reasonable). A short-term goal is the goal you set for yourself each week. A long-term goal might be “lose 30 pounds in 5 months.” A short-term goal is “lose one pound this week.” As long as you keep meeting your short-term goals, you will make your long-term goal!

Wow! There are MAGIC pills out there that will burn up body fat while you are SLEEPING! You can eat all you want of whatever you want, take a pill, go to sleep, and the fat all gets burned up. Is THAT amazing or what? Amazing, yes; true, not so much.

The world has been waiting for that magic pill that could be taken once daily that would cause us to be able to eat the entire chocolate cake and a gallon of ice cream without gaining a single pound. Maybe someday, somebody will invent such a wonderful little pill; but so far, it does not exist.

A magical fat-burning diet pill doesn’t really exist, but that doesn’t stop advertisers from trying to convince you that it does — and charging you dearly to find out that they lied to you.

There is only one thing that really produces weight loss; eating fewer calories than you burn. And there are only two ways to achieve that goal; eat less, and exercise more. It isn’t painless, but it is rewarding, and it WILL make you look better and feel better about yourself. Sadly, there is no pill that can do the trick for you.

There are lots of diet pills out there. Many of them promise to suppress your appetite and give you more energy at the same time. And, I must admit that there are pills that can do just that. I also must warn you that the drugs that are in these appetite-suppressing pills can actually do you more harm than good. The pills themselves don’t cause weight loss. Eating less and exercising more causes weight loss, and those appetite-suppressant pills will only make you fidgety and nervous. They will not CAUSE you to lose one pound.

We are all eagerly awaiting the discovery of that magic pill that will allow us to eat all we want without gaining a single ounce. Maybe someday; for now, it’s diet and exercise.