Why Diets Suck For Weight Loss

The Diet Failed You

One thing I’ve learned in my journey losing 100 pounds; food is a very tricky balancing act of what we want and what we need. Constantly trying to fill the gap between what we “should” eat and “like” to eat. Why do we sort of just accept this struggle as part of dieting?

Consider the following! *Bill Nye voice*

You've tried keto, intermittent fasting, fat loss tonics and every diet under the sun but still struggle to see results. But have you ever stopped to consider why you chose that specific diet? Why that diet didn’t work? Or even how you felt when you were on that diet? If you answered “no” to any of those questions, the diet was never the reason you couldn't lose weight. Your approach to weight loss was the real issue.

Something I’ve learned through 5 years of weight loss suffering is; “dieting” itself is the problem. There are more “diets” than ever, yet obesity rates are at an all time high.

The way the word diet is used implies a very strict regimen and restriction. Hell, if you Google it, the word diet has ‘restrict’ in the definition. Diets are temporary. How often have you heard – or said – something like this; “I’m going on a diet to lose 10 pounds” What happens when you lose that 10 pounds? You go back to the way you were eating? If you do that, you’re going to find that 10 pounds you lost and a lot more.

IMPORTANT!

Quickly, before we go on, we need to draw some lines here so we can frame the discussion we’re about to have. In the intro, I shit on diets and the word diet. That word SHANT be used here! Instead, we will discuss Nutrition.

Nutrition looks at food and what you put in your face as a whole. Everything from the way you think about food to how foods uniquely affect your body. Instead of telling you what to eat and when to eat it; a properly designed nutrition plan teaches you how.

How to create balance in our life. How to not feel restricted. How to eat in a way that works best for your body. Imagine eating in a way to lose weight without having to give up any of the foods you love. That’s what a nutrition plan does for you. So, let’s talk nutrition.

Good vs. Bad Foods

Problem: A Diet labels food as “Allowed” and “Not Allowed”.
Fix: A Nutrition Plan does not label food at all but rather helps you understand how certain foods serve the body on all levels.

I’m sure we’ve all heard this one; “Oh, no I’m not allowed to have that. I’m on a diet”. The truth is, there is no such thing as good and bad food. Food quality exists on a spectrum. No food is completely good or completely bad. All food sits somewhere between those two extremes.

All food serves the body in one way or another. Whether it’s to benefit our health or because we want to enjoy it for its taste, both serve a desire of the body. Food can benefit our health from a nutrient standpoint and food we enjoy help the body from a mental standpoint. BOTH ARE EQUALLY IMPORTANT! Once we start to understand WHY we are eating certain foods, we can bring awareness to the fact that we eat some foods solely because they are enjoyable; and that’s ok. We need an example…

Let’s pick cookies and broccoli. Can we all agree that, generally speaking, broccoli is “healthier” than cookies? From a health foods perspective; broccoli has more vitamins and minerals, no added sugar, more fiber and fewer calories than cookies. But, how often do you spend a rainy afternoon baking broccoli with the kids? No, you bake cookies with the kids because it’s fun and they taste good.

The fact of the matter is, looking at food as only healthy or unhealthy, you miss a HUGE part of how food benefits the body. Yes, we need to eat foods like broccoli most of the time; but it’s ok to enjoy cookies every now and then!

Now, this is NOT a free ticket to go ham on that batch of cookies and eat 17 of them. Bring awareness to the fact that you’re allowing yourself to enjoy the cookies because you enjoy baking with the kids. The mental stress of telling yourself you’re “not allowed” to have cookies with your kids actually does more harm than having a cookie or two.

And if you’re thinking, “You know what O, I can’t only eat one or two cookies.” I strongly urge you to continue reading.

HEY! Continue reading either way 😉

Food Relationships

Problem: A Diet does not consider the emotional attachments we have to food, it makes them worse by telling you can’t eat certain things.
Fix: A Nutrition Plan changes the way we view the foods we enjoy and helps us set boundaries while still being able to enjoy them.

This goes hand-in-hand with the baking cookies example. Most of us have very deeply rooted emotional connections to food. We often seek comfort in food when we are sad. We use it to celebrate when we are happy. We use it to keep busy when we are bored. If your emotional attachment to food is not considered when we build a nutrition plan; there is a high likelihood of running into problems down the road.

We all have that one food we know is a problem for us. Ice cream, chips, cookies, whatever it is. If it’s in the house or at the party, we’re going to eat it – AAAAAALL of it. These are called your “Trigger Foods”. For me, it’s peanut butter. I’ll eat the whole damn jar, just watch me(actually no, don’t watch that).

It’s unrealistic to think that just by starting a new diet, those feelings will go away. Instead of continuously fighting them, they must be included in your action pan. The way you view that food must change for long term compliance to be possible. Start by identifying your Trigger Food then creating barriers between you and that food.

A barrier is anything that makes you work or wait for that food. For example, not keeping trigger foods in the house. If you want ice cream tonight, you have to drive to the store to get it. The barrier being the action of driving to the store.

If you do decide to indulge your craving, buy a single serving package and enjoy it without feeling guilty or like a failure.

Having trigger foods nearby at all times makes them easy to grab when the craving hits. The barrier gives you time to think about the food and what you’re doing. “No, I don’t need it right now. I’m just stressed from work today. If I eat that right before bed, I’ll wake up feeling like shit.”

Fixing relationships with food can (and often does) go much deeper than setting boundaries with trigger foods. But, it’s a great place to start. In our Fat Loss Secrets Facebook Community, there is a Cravings Cheat Sheet that can help you through your cravings.

0 to 100 Real Quick

Problem: A Diet expects you to make big, rapid changes to what you are currently doing.
Fix: Nutrition Plans look at what you’re currently doing and works with it by making small, sustainable changes.

More often than not, just jumping head first into a hardcore meal plan will only succeed in making things worse. Progress will happen for a month or two. Then, you get tired of the plan’s restriction and rigged structure then fall back into old habits. Or you diet so long your body will adapt to the new diet – see my post ‘Why You Can’t Lose Weight’ for a breakdown of how that happens. By far the most successful and sustainable approach to fixing nutrition is to make small, incremental changes to what you already eat and drink.

When you think of dieting, the first thought is always getting rid of stuff. That doesn’t need to be the case. Instead of looking for “What should I remove?” ask “How can I make this a little bit better?”. By the way, better can mean a lot of things.

It’s high time for some real-life examples of what better looks like.

A) Adding Food: Let’s say a burger and fries are the menu for tonight. Instead of ditching the fries, add some veggies to the plate. It will add some vitamins, minerals and fiber to the plate and help you feel more satisfied.
B) Change Location: Eating dinner in front of the TV every night? Move to the dinner table or turn it off. This way you’ll be less distracted and able to focus on the food you’re eating.
C) Serving Suggestions: Use smaller plates. Subconsciously when we see an empty plate, we automatically want to fill it. Using smaller plates will decrease the portion size meaning you eat less automatically.
D) Eating Order: Most people tend to drift towards the pasta, rice and potatoes first. Try eating your protein and veggies first. Then eat your starches. You will feel more full and less likely to overeat.
E) Health Swaps: Exchange the less healthy item for something a little better. Swapping out soda for flavored seltzer water or that bag of chips for a bag of carrots.

Cascade Effect

Here’s the tricky part about the three things we just talked about; they all feed into each other (pun not intended but very much welcomed).

When you start a new diet, you go all in. You change EVERYTHING about what you eat, what you buy and how you think. Then you start believing foods that do not fit in the new diet are “bad” and ones that do fit are “good”. Then, because you never fixed your relationship with trigger foods, you start craving the foods you “can’t have”. You get fed up with the limited diet options and eat all the foods you’ve been craving. You feel guilty for indulging and restrict yourself even further to make up for it.

You find a new diet and the cycle starts all over again. Like some kind of negative feedback loop from dieting hell…

Now this process goes MUCH deeper than my crudely drawn flow chart but that is the basic progression of most diets. Hopefully by now you can see, in order for a diet to work it needs to be tailored to fit you.

The uncomfortable truth is this; THIS IS A SLOW PROCRESS. Creating healthy, long lasting change takes time, sacrifice and determination. This could take a year (sometimes more) to do. There will be some restriction and sacrifice you need to cope with. You’re not always going to be motivated to do or eat the right thing. Those who stick with it and trust the process and yourself, will see results that last.

_{^{Disclaimer: All information presented is for general information purposes only. Coach Owen Stenabaugh is not a registered dietitian, licensed nutritionist or medical professional.}}