Why Do Diets Fail? The Key to Weight Loss
Creating a diet plan is not difficult, all you need is a bit of common sense: eat healthy food, weigh your food, count your calories and train several hours a day. The problem? It simply doesn't work. It never did and never will. With so many people trying those diets and failing, it is time to stop blaming them (how can so many people be wrong?) and start looking at the real problem: the diets themselves.
Disclaimer: this article is NOT asking you to lose weight, simply helping you if you want to lose weight. Some of you are fine the way you are, don't let the media with their "the slimmer, the better" motto get to you.
Warning: before starting a diet, consult your doctor or nutritionist.
Traditional Diets Failures
1. Too Demanding
Most diets ask people to do things that even slim people don't do! Do you know any slim people weighing their food, counting their calories or even training several hours a day? How fair is it then to demand it from fat people?
2. Failing to Take into Account People's Background
If someone is fat, it is generally because this person:
- does not have time to cook himself/herself and eats too much fast food
- likes sweet food, full of calories
- is always reaching for snacks between meals
How smart can it be to ask this person to:
- weigh his/her food? This person does not have time to cook and you think he/she will have the time to weigh the food? Which food, the burger at the fast food or the chocolate bar at work?
- ask him/her to count calories? This person knows she is eating too much calories. He/she does not need to count them to know it.
Weighing food and counting calories will eventually make this person more and more hungry (less calories means either less food or food that this person likes less, which also leads to less food). Being hungry, feeling guilty about the food are the biggest risks to reach for snacks, chocolate bars and others when stressed (at work, etc...) or feeling sad (problems with boyfriend/girlfriend or husband/wife...).
Finally, following such diets is like trying to eat 50% of what you were eating all of a sudden. How can that work?
3. All about Results
In the TV show "The Biggest Loser", it is interesting to see how surprised people are (both trainers and participants) when one participant does not lose weight after one week of hard training and eating healthy food. Maybe they are a bit nave or maybe they want to give the impression it is unheard of (despite the many seasons where it happened). Your body is the result of MANY things and you should not demand results from it. For example, training a lot will make you lose fat but you will gain muscles, so your weight may not go down as much as you expect it. Psychology is also having some influence on your body. So, focussing on results per day or even per week is NOT the way to go. Give your body time to show the results of your efforts.
Source: Wikipedia.org
The Key to Weight Loss
It is not a secret to anyone, the key to success is thinking in the long run. If you think you are starting a diet, it is already a mistake, since diets are temporary, short time programs. If you really want to lose weight, you need to think about changing your life, so that a NORMAL day outside any diets is one better for your health. Scary? No, it is not, because you don't need to change everything from day one to day two. Changing it little by little is fine and actually recommended.
1. Why It Can Work
What is important is that you make changes that you can bare on an everyday basis, ie don't eat 50% less because this is for sure not something you can do on a long term, at least all of a sudden. If you want to eat less, at least less calories, reduce it slowly by slowly. For example, eat 90% of what you used to (in terms of calories), then reduce it to 80%. If you feel it is hard go back to 85% etc... Remember, you are the one to decide here. If you feel you can reduce to 70% directly, do it. If you are a challenge type of person it may work. But again, don't think about it as a diet. It is not a diet for the next 6 months. It is a life change. From now on, this is what you are going to do, eat etc...
2. Easy Steps
Some steps are hard, some are easy. Here are some that can be easy:
- reduce soda. Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Juice, ... people have the feeling they cannot live without them. And yet, water is fine. If you find it boring, try it sparkling, with lemon or with orange. For other ideas,here is an excellent article about 10 alternatives to soda.
- walk more. Before going to bed, what about a small digestive walk? If you have always wanted a dog, this could also be a good help, as you will have to walk him out often. Beware: DON'T get a dog just to lose weight. Next holiday on the beach? How wonderful it is to walk on the sand...
- reduce sweet food. Use tomato sauce instead of ketchup, spicy sauce instead of barbecue sauce, use mustard, vinegar, pepper, etc... There are many ways to give your food more taste others than using sugar. Gastronomy food is not boring and it is tasty. And yet, it is not sweet.
Source: Wikipedia.org
3. Eating Between the Meals
If you often eat between meals, stop counting calories and weighing your food and start eating more during the meals IMMEDIATELY. Snacks, chocolate bars, being hungry all the time because you are on a diet are your worse enemies. Eat more during meals, especially rice, pasta, vegetables, salad. Eat more starters and main dishes and less desserts. Again those are proportion. Don't stop desserts all of a sudden. Reduce it on a proportion that is acceptable for you. When you see you are fine eating less desserts, you may be able to reduce even more later.
If you really don't have the choice, try to kill your between-the-meal hunger with fresh fruits and vegetables. Going from carrot sticks (not cream/sauce, please) to an apple or a banana, you can eat things a bit healthier than chocolate bars and not necessarily less tasty.
4. Temptations and Motivation
Everyday life is full of temptations. Fast food everywhere, people eating around you, stress, ... You need to be strong to maintain a high quality lifestyle. But remember it is your health which is at stake!
If the temptation is coming from your family and close friends, ask them to show some understanding and support. They need to understand that it does not help you if they eat big cakes in front of you and that supporting you will help you a lot to meet your goal.
If you need some more motivation, you could actually use some internet resources. Support groups, inspirational videos... Even TV shows like "The Biggest Loser" can help. If you need motivation to run, you could get an iPad mount for treadmill.
For people with diabetes risks, a nice product to keep your motivation high is aglucose monitoring device. Portable, easy to use and gives you the result very fast.
5. Results
Don't be too harsh/severe with yourself. The aim is not to lose 50% of your weight in 5 weeks. The aim is to change your lifestyle so that you health is getting better. The simple fact you are stopping gaining weight is a victory.
6. Miracle Products
Secret tips: people who managed to lose weight are happy about it and would share it, so why would these tips be secret?
Miracle products to lose weight: this is so wrong. Not only because they do not exist but because even if it was the case it would not be the solution. Compare it to a boat flooded with water because of a hole. What is the solution? Removing the water again and again or fixing the hole? If a miracle product existed, it would be only nice to use it once anyway and you would still need to change your lifestyle to keep up your new weight after that. So if you are not able to change your lifestyle, don't even think about this miracle product in the first place.
Conclusion
I really hope this article motivated you and will help you if you decide to go for a life change. If it did I will be really happy to hear from you. You need to register here to post a comment but it will make me very happy.
- What Is The Best Way To Feed Your Pet?
By the Drs4Pets Team There really isn’t a single “best” way to feed every pet. It is important to make adjustments to your feeding regimen to fit the lifestyle that you and your pet lead, as well as taking into account any health needs that your...
- How Much Should You Feed Your Dog?
By Suzanne Alicie How much dry food should you feed your dog each day? Many responsible pet owners know that it is possible to overfeed a dog, which can lead to weight and health problems. But did you know that even the most loving pet owner can accidentally...
- How To Help Your Fat Chihuahua Lose Weight
Chihuahuas are prone to overeating as a result of overfeeding by their owners. It is not difficult to find a fat Chihuahua, one that is obese and reluctant to walk about somewhere around your neighborhood. Most Chihuahua owners however, are ignorant to...
- Green Bean Diet For Dogs
Green bean diet mostly comprises beans and then other fiber rich foods. It has always been adhered to by civilizations since long. But in this article, we are going to play around with the idea of this diet for dogs. As first, it does not contain...
- Want To Give Your Pet A Treat? Dont Overfeed Him!
By Carol Johnson Many pet lovers think they can easily show their dog or cat how much they love them by giving them a treat and rubbing their belly. But too many of those treats, and that belly will get bigger and bigger. Which is a sad state of...