4 Reasons Why Most Diets Fail
Ask any dietician and they will tell you that ‘quick fix’ diets aren’t worth the paper they are written on.
Promoting short term, unsustainable weight loss methods that are unhealthy for your body and dangerous, the risks that can accompany these types of diets are not worth it when adopting a sound, sensible eating plan can offer you so much more.
Why don’t diets work?
Problem 1: Diets don’t last
Look at any diet, and the dietary/lifestyle changes they require are dramatic. Instead of opting for small incremental changes that you can easily stick to for the rest of your life, these diets ask you to turn your life upside down for 2-3 weeks.
The problem with this scenario however is once these 3 weeks are over, you return to your old eating habits and you regain all the weight you lost.
Remember – big changes do not last! You need to start off small…
By gradually introducing small, healthy dietary changes to your regime – one at a time – your body can naturally adapt to these changes and stick to them.
However, opt for a quick fix diet and the only weight loss you’ll really experience is water weight.
Problem 2: Diets make you more hungry
Most diets treat fat loss as something you can only achieve nutritionally. Yet by taking such drastic steps with your diet – and so soon – you run the risk of snacking and feeling more hungry.
It all ties down to the word ‘diet’. Mention it and you automatically think calorie reduction. However, training is equally as important during your weight loss programme as it enables you to boost your metabolism and burn more calories.
Compare training to dieting and you’ll encounter two very different approaches. On the one hand sports nutrition involves building up your muscle mass whilst in the diet world it is fundamental to tear your calories down. Yet the real trick to losing weight is creating a calorie deficit using them both.
By doing so, you can burn more calories than you consume and increase your weight loss success.
So how do you do it? Exercise. By creating the right balance between your exercise habits and diet, you can increase your muscle growth – which will help your metabolism to work harder – and burn fat faster.
More importantly by establishing this balance you can overcome the biggest reason why most diets fail – you can beat hunger.
Problem 3: Diets make you tired
Low in calories, these types of diets do not provide you with enough energy to handle your day to day tasks let alone complete your workouts.
It is shocking to see the number of weight loss programmes that tell you to eat like a gerbil but spend countless hours exercising. Yes, taking this approach may shift some excess pounds, but at the same time you will be forsaking your muscles and your metabolic rate.
To attain credible weight loss, you need to have the fuel to support it and this means eating carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates are your body’s preferred energy source for physical exercise, so by incorporating a diet that is moderate in carbohydrates you can burn those fats and still have the energy to perform your day to day activities.
Problem 4: Diets eat into your muscle
As we mentioned above, restricting your calories can cause muscle deterioration. Why? Because when your body is out of calories, it turns to your muscles as another source for fat. But as a consequence your muscles start to deteriorate taking your basal metabolic rate with it.
The key is to find the right balance in your diet that provides your body with enough fat/calories to burn, but at the same time works to improve your muscle definition. The more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn.