It’s all the rage right now. Dieting. Lose 20 pounds in two weeks following xyz diet. Drink three shakes a day to shed unwanted body weight. Don’t eat carbs. Eat paleo. Eat keto. Eat low fat. Don’t eat after dark. And the endless amount of diets available out there could go on and on. Coming from someone that always felt the need to be dieting since high school, I am here to tell you that cookie cutter diets do not work. The overwhelming amount of diet trends available can be confusing to the average person looking to get healthier and lose some weight along the way. Out of all the different types of diets out there, they all have a few things in common. These things are calorie restriction, making multiple drastic changes to your lifestyle and rules.
Yes, it is true that a caloric deficit is required to lose weight, but more restriction is never the answer. Most mainstream diets are extremely low in calories requiring women to not exceed 1,200-1,500 calories in a day. Many women already eat a relatively low calorie diet and if they were to drop their calories even lower, in hopes of losing weight, eventually their calories would get so low they wouldn’t have a calorie bank at all. All body’s require different amounts of energy. Energy meaning food. A woman weighing 150 pounds will require a different amount of calories to function and lose weight than a woman weighing 120 pounds. The only thing calorie restriction is good for is making you feel miserable, obsess over food and eventually fall back into old habits. Eating well most of the time and moving in the form of exercise 3-5 times a week is much more powerful, effective and sustainable than calorie restriction.
Specific dieting protocols require a person to make drastic changes to their current lifestyle. Asking someone who eats processed boxed meals every day and is relatively sedentary to only eat whole foods, meal prep a weeks worth of meals and exercise four times a week is setting that person up for epic failure. They simply require too much change at once. Change is a skill and all skills must be learned through practice. When too much change is required, most people cannot sustain it and revert to what they know. Their old habits. In order to make any change stick you must first make it a goal. Then, break that goal down into specific skills that will eventually add up to your end goal. After that, practice those skills one at a time through daily action until it becomes a habit. If you do this well you will accomplish your goals more quickly, with less effort and maintain your results.
Along with making too many changes at once, mainstream diets are all about rules. Eat this but not that. Count your calories. This food is bad. Perform this workout program. Adding rules to the way you eat and exercise pigeon holes you into a systematic way of living. And what are those rules teaching you anyways? Nothing. Learning how to make better choices, lose weight and feel more confident in your already existing life is key.
Calorie restriction plus drastic change plus food rules is an equation for ultimate failure. Finally get the body you want without following another cookie cutter diet again. Ditch calorie restriction, make sustainable changes and say good bye to food rules and start making yourself a priority by learning how your body works, what it needs and how to make it feel good inside and out.