It's a popular phrase in weight loss advertising today - "Lose 30 lbs in as many days, or your money back." Most often you can't get your money back, because you do lose 30 lbs, and your money too!

Would-be weight loss candidates need to think carefully about what is promised in these ads and what exactly they are losing.

The human body is about 70% water, so we can lose some of that. But that can easily be replenished. We just need to drink adequate amounts of water. But what about losing muscle?

Body fat can produce about three times the amount of energy as can muscle (protein), weight for weight. And weight loss efforts, including physical exercise, can make you lose muscle. But there are serious implications when you lose muscle mass during the weight loss process.

1. Losing muscle mass means decreasing your fat-burning capacity
2. Decreasing muscle mass means losing the your shape and healthy figure
3. Losing muscle may mean extra protein metabolism, hence taxing the kidneys
4. Calorie restricting diets often leave the habit that promoted the weight gain in tact. This does not make for permanent weight loss.

Consider a better alternative

A better alternative to losing weight by restricting calories is a lifestyle makeover. Consider changing the habits that lead to weight loss. This doesn't require pills or low calorie diets diets. Typically, eating the right carbohydrates, at the right time, getting enough exercise and rest will allow almost anyone to maintain their ideal body weight.

Going on diets such as the grapefruit diet is simply practising purposeful malnutrition. We don't need to starve our bodies that way in order to lose weight.

A famous dietitian said that it is rare to find ab obese person who doesn't have the habit of skipping breakfast, eating late at night, and snacking all the time. Usually one or more of those habits will lead to weight gain and associated lifestyle conditions, such as high cholesterol, diabetes, and hypertension.

Missing breakfast, snacking, and eating less than four hours before bed time are health habits that, over time, make it difficult for us to see (or touch) our toes! Eating the wrong things is equally damaging.

Make sure you lose the right stuff

In your weight loss efforts it is important to make sure you lose the right stuff - the fat. In fact, exercise will help you build more muscle, and this means better fat-burning capacity, so you will have no trouble keeping the weight off.

With the right approach to weight loss, we can lose unwanted body fat, build more muscle mass muscle and improve physical strength, and improve health in general, all at the same time. This can be done without losing your money too.