Title : Why Diets Don’t Work & What To Do To Lose Weight For Good!
link : Why Diets Don’t Work & What To Do To Lose Weight For Good!
Why Diets Don’t Work & What To Do To Lose Weight For Good!
Obesity and becoming overweight can also be caused by early life trauma, not just overeating. Recently there has been some well-documented research on the obesity-trauma connection. In one early study of 286 obese people, found that half had been sexually abused as children. In these cases, overeating and obesity weren't the central problems, but attempted solutions. So for these people, therapy needs to be a prerequisite to healthy weight loss. It could help clients identify the feelings and situations behind emotional over-eating and replace it with healthier nutritional patterns.
Another much larger study of over 17,000 people, provided more documentation of the links between adverse childhood experiences, and unhealthy behaviors like smoking, drinking, and overeating; along with mental, emotional, and even medical disorders later in life.
Diet Products & Companies Are NOT Your Friend
Companies that promote dieting, actually make their money off your failure, not your success. They need you to fail, so you'll pay them again and again. One-time customers are not good for business.
You may hear people say, "I followed a diet, and I've lost weight, or it's working." But what they are not understanding is that they're in the honeymoon stage which is great, but it's going to get a lot harder soon. For practically any diet during the first 6 to 12 months, people can lose about 10% of their starting weight. This is not that much considering the amount of deprivation you are putting yourself through, which can also lead to binge eating.
When people lose weight on a diet, they call it a success, and once the weight comes back on, they don't say that the diet wasn't successful, they say "I blew it." But that's all part of the diet. Studies have been conducted where it shows that dieters who get distracted eat more than non-dieters. This shows that the subtlest things can mess you up. A small percentage of dieters, around 5% can do it, but they do it by devoting every minute of their life fighting biology and evolution.
Calorie Restriction
Our bodies need a certain number of calories each day just to maintain normal metabolic functioning. Your lungs, brain, heart, muscles, digestive system, nervous system and cardiovascular system all require calories to work properly. If you drastically cut calories, your body thinks it's starving and reduces how many calories it burns at rest because it's trying to conserve energy. Also, you're likely to lose lean muscle mass rather than fat, because muscle burns more calories at rest, so the body wants to rid itself of muscle and hold onto fat for energy. Then, as soon as you return to your old eating habits, the weight quickly piles back on.
Low Fat & Low Carb Diets
Fat in food slows down stomach emptying, which helps increase the feelings of fullness and satiety after a meal. Many popular diets are too low in fat, leaving you hungry soon after eating. These extremely-low-fat diets don't work because you eventually overeat to compensate. On the other hand, some diets advocate going very low-carbohydrate. Again, these diets usually aren't successful because our bodies need a certain amount of carbohydrates to function properly. Diets that are too low in carbohydrates leave you feeling fatigued and moody. This happens because carbohydrates are the body's preferred form of fuel needed for immediate energy (particularly for the nervous system). Additionally, carbohydrates stimulate the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which helps boost mood.
The question that looms over all the diet conversations is whether any of these weight loss schemes worked long term. Think about it....if a diet had worked, shouldn't it have survived the test of time? Over the almost 20 years that I have been researching weight loss, nutrition, biology and fitness, I have NEVER tried or found any "diet" that has actually worked well over the long term.
But you don't have to go solely by my observations, according to Traci Mann, a psychology teacher at the University of Minnesota who has been studying eating habits, self-control and dieting for more than 20 years, has also found the same disappointing answers. Her findings are chronicled in her book Secrets from the Eating Lab, and offer a fascinating explanation for why dieting over the long term is actually impossible.
Fad Diets Can Be Harmful
Most diets lack essential nutrients, and they teach you nothing about healthy eating. So when you've "completed" your fad diet, you simply boomerang back to the unhealthy eating patterns that caused your weight gain in the first place! This is the beginning of "yo-yo dieting," which can bring its own health problems.
What Happens In The Body When We Diet
Although weight loss is typically approached by dietary restriction and/or increased physical activity, the overwhelming majority of people regain the weight that they have lost over the long-term. Many things cause dieters to lose control because when you diet, so many biological changes happen in the body, that it becomes practically impossible to keep the weight off.
Biological Changes In The Body While Dieting
There are three biological changes that take place, with the first being neurological changes. When you diet, you actually become more likely to notice food, as the brain becomes overly responsive to it. The brain actually begins to see foods as more appetizing and tempting, which increases the reward value. So the thing you're trying to avoid, actually becomes more difficult to resist.
Then there are hormonal changes that take place, which is the same kind of thing. As you lose body fat, hormones change in the body. Some of these hormones are there to help you feel full, but when you diet they are decreased, and the hormones that make you feel hungry, increase.
The third is the biological changes, which are metabolic changes, meaning your metabolism slows down. Your body uses calories in the most efficient way possible, which sounds like a good thing, and would be good thing if you're starving to death. But it isn't a good thing if you're trying to lose fat, because when your body finds a way to run itself on fewer calories, it causes the left over calories to be stored as fat, which is exactly what you don't want to happen. To fight against all of that will take over your life, and that's no way to live. So Dieting = a slow metabolism & muscle loss, which then decreases metabolic rate further.
Other Issues With Dieting
Another physiological change produced by dieting is increased insulin sensitivity. This is generally considered a good thing, but it can also make people vulnerable to weight regain. Insulin is a hormone that the pancreas releases into the bloodstream. Insulin’s main goal is to act like a key that allows glucose, (flowing through the bloodstream,and into cells) to be used for energy.
When a person’s cells become resistant to insulin, the glucose can’t get into them, so it then builds up in the blood, eventually causing high blood sugar. Meanwhile, the cells switch to using fat for fuel. With weight loss, cells become more sensitive to insulin, which allows glucose to enter the cell once more. Those cells use that glucose, and the fat that would otherwise be used for energy is directed back into storage, which can cause weight gain.
Tackling Hunger
Feeling hungry five minutes, or even an hour after you eat is not necessary for weight loss. In fact, chronic hunger generally indicates that your diet is imbalanced or inadequate, which can cause your body to conserve energy, and resist weight loss.
To lose pounds and inches without perpetual hunger pangs, you need to consume healthy foods that boost satiety and keep you feeling full longer. Eating foods high in lean protein like organic eggs, poultry, fish, beans and lentils, fiber from fruits, veggies, whole grains, leafy greens, beans, lentils, and good fats from avocados, nuts, seeds, and extra virgin olive and coconut oils. A 350 calorie meal of one cup of black bean soup, topped with a quarter cup of chopped avocado, two cups of grilled asparagus, and a half cup of cooked quinoa, will leave you feeling more full than a 350 calorie frozen diet dinner.
Another smart strategy is to choose foods that allow you to eat more volume without racking up excess calories, including water-rich fresh fruits and veggies, and airy starches, like organic popcorn and puffed whole grains.
Fighting Cravings
Taking inventory of your splurge foods is wise because not finding a way to build-in indulgences is a top reason why many people ride the weight rollercoaster. Lose 20 pounds, gain back 25, lose 30, gain back 40… Trying to be "perfect" week after week typically leads to feelings of deprivation, resentment, anger or depression, and culminates in either binge eating, or diet abandonment.
Ditch the "all or nothing" mentality. If you're worried about overdoing it when indulging in your favorite treat, allow yourself small splurges in ways that reduce the chance of overeating. For example, once a week, split a dessert at a restaurant, or buy one cookie from a bakery, rather than bringing home a box. Also, be sure to include nutrient-rich weight loss friendly foods that feel like splurges, such as almond butter, avocado, coconut or soy milk ice cream and dark chocolate. Not being able to look forward to and savor your food is a surefire recipe for disaster.
Body Rebellion
Drastic or too-strict diets can trigger mood swings, headaches, physical and mental fatigue, irritability, digestive upset, and brain fog. These issues are commonly referred to as withdrawal, and nobody wants to feel this way. Changing your diet for the better should leave you feeling energized, light, clear-headed, and happy.
Social Pressure
Numerous people say that when they turn down food or drinks because they're trying to eat healthier, friends and family members respond with comments like, "You don't need to lose weight, you look fine." Many report feeling guilted or enticed into eating foods they're trying to avoid, and research confirms it. One recent study found that friends who eat together consume more food than those paired with strangers, as often times friends give each other "permission" to overeat.
Break the eating-as-entertainment pattern. Rather than scheduling social time around happy hour and dinners out, mix things up. Go out and be active rather than go to a movie, so that munching on popcorn and candy isn't allowed. If you get push back, concretely explain why your goals are important to you, like explain that eating better helps you sleep, so you're more productive at work, or that it keeps heartburn at bay, and alleviates migraines. Your friends may feel like they've lost a partner in crime, but if they care about you, they'll make peace with how you spend time with them.
Emotions
We're practically programmed from birth to use food emotionally. We bond and celebrate over meals, use food to show our affection, bring others food in times of crisis, and use food as a means of comfort. A terrible day at work, or a long-awaited promotion can trigger you to eat, so overcoming emotional eating is a huge weight loss hurdle.
Strong emotions tend to drown out rational thoughts, and distance us from the consequences of our immediate actions. In other words, when you're really sad, angry, or scared, and you know that eating ice cream is going to make you feel better right now, it's easy to push away thoughts about how you'll feel tomorrow, or detach from goals that aren't relevant in that moment. It's not easy, and it doesn't happen overnight, but you can change that pattern. Even if you did not eat emotionally 50 to 70% of the time, this shift can have a dramatic impact on your weight.
Living Below Your Weight Range
People should also not try to live at a lower weight than their set range. This is what sets off all those biological changes that are effectively trying to defend your set weight and size range. When your body goes lower than your set range, it makes changes to bump your weight back up to where it should be. However, what most people don't know, is that if your weight goes above what it should be, the body also makes changes to push it back down toward your ideal weight. I understand that people want to look a certain way, and it is fine to try and stay at the lower end of your set range. It's a healthy place to be, and considered the sweet spot.
If I Shouldn't Diet, What Should I Do?
Clean, healthy eating, exercise using a little cardio & weights, along with working daily to change your behaviors for the long-term. There needs to be a psychological shift where you deliberately start choosing to change your mental thought processes, and self-image for the better. This is what gets results in the long run. Deliberately choose how you feel about your body and the food you eat, to improve your self-image. As a result, these desired habits and attitudes will be developed naturally, and help you achieve your weight and fat loss goals without the epic struggle.
The Eat-Clean philosophy is that nutrition is far more important than exercise or genetics in shaping our bodies. Eating foods like lean protein, good-for-you carbs, healthy fats, fresh fruits, and vegetables about six times a day in the right amounts. Also, drink plenty of water, and exercise regularly, and you’ll turn your sluggish metabolism into a fat-burning machine.
What You Can and Can’t Eat
We need to reconsider the way we think about food, instead of thinking about temporarily going on some trendy new fad diet to shed excess pounds or achieve some aspect of wellness. We should be thinking about making achievable, realistic changes that we can sustain for a lifetime.
Clean Eating Principles
- Eat about six small meals a day, or 3 meals and 3 healthy snacks.
- Eat breakfast every day, within an hour of getting up.
- Eat lean protein and complex carbohydrates at every meal.
- Have two or three servings of healthy fats every day.
- Get fiber, vitamins, nutrients, probiotics and enzymes from fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Control your portions.
- Drink plenty of water every day.
Foods To Avoid
- Overprocessed Foods, especially white flour, pasta, bread and sugar
- Artificial Sweeteners
- Sugary Beverages, like Soda and Juice with added Sugar
- Alcohol
- Foods with Chemical Additives like food dyes and sodium nitrite
- Foods with Preservatives
- Artificial Foods, likes processed cheese slices
- Saturated fats and trans fats
- Anti-foods or calorie-dense foods with no nutritional value
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