1. Tastes good
2. Support group
3. Sustainable (lifestyle)

Let's take a closer look at each of these three secrets.

Secret one: Tastes good.while this may seem obvious, it is probably the most important of the whole list. Diets are often difficult for people because they dread eating the food. Stale rice crackers, weirdo tofu, or bland, tasteless, fake meat.right? Well, in order for a diet to be successful, it has to offer something to please the taste buds. Fact is fact, if you don't like it, you will slip back into your old eating pattern within a matter of days. You will "cheat" often, and you will look for excuses why right now is not the right time to diet.

It is worth repeating, if the food on the diet does not taste good, then every time you try to do it you will cringe and be miserable. Poor tasting food is what gives diets a bad name. Dieting isn't difficult if you like the food. If the food tastes good to you, you will eat it, even if it is diet food. So, find a diet that offers you plenty of variety. Variety adds excitement, and helps you to be able to keep it up. Find one that offers some of every food group, but in a way that makes sense.

Secret two: Support group.whenever you take on a new challenge having your support group is important. Before you start a diet you need to get your spouse and family on board. They may not be the one dieting, or needing to diet, but if while you are trying to eat low fat meals, and fewer sweets, and your family pops buttered popcorn, pulls out the ice cream, and eats fatty hamburgers and French fries, it will be hard. So, get them on board, help them understand how important your diet is to you, and that you need them to support you in it by not offering you junk, or even eating it in front of you as the temptation may be too great to avoid.

Another aspect of a support group is one provided by the diet itself. For example Weight Watchers offer groups, many diets have websites with all kinds of support materials. Basically the easier it is, the more support you get (such as recipe swaps that fit within the diet, and online blogging and suggestions, as well as meetings, trainings, and help lines), the better success you will have. When you start to slip you can lean on others and have them help you regain your motivation.

Secret three: Sustainable.there are a lot of diets out there that you can only do for so long, like all meat, or all juice, etc. these diets are great for dropping quick pounds, however, the second you stop them you pack on the pounds, and often gain more weight than you originally had. So, think of it this way, you have to like the food, so that you can make this a lifestyle rather than "diet" per say. You may want to do the diet more intensely until you lose your desired weight, but then you need to be able to sustain it so that you do not gain the weight back. So, look for variety, look for lots of options, look for diets that are easy and quick, that do not require specific measuring, or carb counting. You will not be able to keep that up, life is too busy. So, make it sustainable.

Finding a diet that fits these three categories means finding the three secrets to a successful diet. Dieting is supposed to be easy, and have results, not tasteless, tiresome, and short-lived.