Does this sound familiar? You hear about this incredible diet that will guarantee weight loss, so you try it, only to gain even more weight back once you’ve lost it?
Don’t feel bad. You are not alone. Just because a diet works for one person does not mean it will work for you. Diets are destined to fail, and it should come as no surprise. After all, “die” is within the word “diet.” That should be your first sign. You want to live your life in a way that is nourishing and fulfilling, so then why shouldn't that be the same when it comes to food?
Here are the top 5 reasons that diets are doomed to fail:
1. People choose to use a diet to achieve short-term goals. That goal is usually to lose weight before an upcoming event like a wedding, family reunion, or school reunion. Diets are perceived from the onset as a temporary action used to obtain an immediate result. Once that result is achieved, the diet is stopped, and old eating habits return.
2. The yo-yo diet or weight cycling. As mentioned, many people go on diets, lose weight, and then gain weight, often more than they lost. And, for some reason, the cycle is repeated.
Albert Einstein quote, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
This repeated failure can adversely affect a person’s mental health and result in an eating disorder.
3. Many diets are based on counting calories using a formula meant for the general population instead of the individual. Everybody processes calories differently, and calories aren't the same between one carb and the next. This formula supports that caloric expenditure exceeds caloric intake and will therefore promote weight loss. It has become clear that this premise is no longer valid. Again, not every calorie is not created equally. Calories consumed from spinach or sweet potatoes are much more nutrient-dense than calories consumed from a processed, low-fat muffin. In addition, if you consume too few calories, your body goes into survival mode, slowing the metabolism. You risk your metabolism remaining sluggish once you start consuming more calories among various other cycles.
4. Before even starting a diet, people believe they will deprive themselves of foods they love. Entering into a program with this mindset does not support success. This consistent experience of deprivation will bring on food cravings that will be difficult to ignore.
5. This brings me to the last reason diets do not work. They do not address food cravings and how to handle them. Everyone has cravings. Having the tools to help navigate those cravings and reach for healthy food alternatives will help lessen them over time. This is where the unending permission slip that all foods are allowed. Learning how to eat and what to eat for your body is pertinent to a healthy lifestyle.
Unfortunately, for many individuals, diets only offer a quick fix to a more significant problem. Learning which foods nourish the body and which don’t is the best approach to eating to obtain weight loss and optimal health together if that is your health and wellness goal.
Intuitive Eating and Mindful Eating allow you to get off the merry-go-round known as diet culture and free's you to be healthy, learn what works for your body and how to eat REAL foods from all foods that are available out there without restriction, without your food police and without harming yourself physically and mentally.