FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. (AFPN) -- The low-carb diet. The low-fat diet. The cabbage soup diet. The grapefruit diet. The shake diet.

There are “miracle” pills that claim weight loss without ever stepping foot in a gym. And there are all the herbal supplements for the Earth- and body-conscious consumers.

It is all enough to make a person wanting to shed a couple pounds go crazy. So what is true and what is false?

“If you hear somebody say you can lose 30 pounds in a month healthily, they lied to you,” said Staff Sgt. Rebecca Caldwell, noncommissioned officer in charge of diet therapy for the 92nd Aeromedical Dental Squadron here.

In reality, healthy weight loss averages one-half to 2 pounds a week.

“If you’re losing any more than that, then you’re not losing fat; instead, you’re losing muscle mass,” she said.

Losing weight is not an overnight process, Sergeant Caldwell said. The only way someone can safely lose weight and truly keep it off is to change his or her current eating habits for the better.

The staff at health and wellness centers promotes a nutrition plan that most people have been familiar with since childhood: the food pyramid.

While most people think they are familiar with the pyramid and what it teaches, a lot of people either forget or do not know about one of its main teachings.

“In today’s society, everything is oversized,” Sergeant Caldwell said. “A lot of people just don’t understand what a normal portion size is.”

For example, six to eleven servings of breads and grains does not necessarily mean six to eleven bowls of pasta or cereal. A bowl of pasta may equate to two or three servings.

This lack of knowledge, coupled with unhealthy food choices, is the quickest way to pack on pounds.

It is all things most people have had driven into their minds since grade school, but a lot of times adults forget. That is where Sergeant Caldwell and her co-workers come in.

Besides classes on proper nutrition, the centers have a registered dietician on its staff to help people.

The dietician can sit down with clients and help work out a plan that works with their lifestyle and helps them meet their goals.

Also, besides traditional dietary advice, dieticians counsel people on proper nutrition for diabetics, expectant mothers, those with high cholesterol and just about any other condition.

Wellness center visitors can get books full of healthy recipes, tools to help with portion or calorie counting, and handfuls of literature explaining the effects of a healthy lifestyle.

“The body is like a car, and food is our fuel,” Sergeant Caldwell said. “You wouldn’t put dirty gas into a car, so why put unhealthy food into your body?”

Like a fine-tuned machine, the human body and automobiles share several likenesses. The better they are taken care of, the longer they are going to last and the better they are going to perform.

The body also needs routine maintenance in the form of cholesterol and blood-pressure checks.

However, the main difference between the two is that people are only given one body; there is no trading it in or getting a new one.