You’ve probably said it before…”I’ve tried every diet and nothing works long term!” I hear it from so many women. You’re frustrated and burned out on diets. You’ve been let down too many times. Each diet you try gets you excited because it promises more energy, less pain and glowing skin. But if you’re being honest, you’re really in it for the weight loss it promises. Let’s face it, it will soon be hot and you can’t wear sweaters forever…sleeveless weather is coming! So on to the next diet right? Only to be disappointed.
You’re not alone. Diets disappoint the vast majority of those that try them. Most diets are a gimmick to sell something. Whether it be food or a product, the makers are making money off you. To get people in and hooked, they make the diet so most people will find benefits at the beginning. But these benefits are short lived. You quickly hit a plateau or it gets too expensive, lose momentum and interest, and then feel like a failure yet again.
Top 3 Reasons You Can’t Stick to a Diet Long Term
Your body isn’t designed to follow a diet long term. So it’s really not you that has the problem, it’s the diet. Here are the top 3 reasons you can’t stick to a diet and what you can do instead:
Diets are too restrictive
Like I said, diets are created as a money maker. If you didn’t see results quickly, you wouldn’t tell all your friends about it and then it wouldn’t be a money maker. So the design of diets is to foster quick weight loss results by limiting calorie and/or carbohydrate intake. For most, anytime total intake is reduced, weight is lost. Couple that with a reduction in carbohydrates, and weight is further lost. The body uses carbohydrates as energy. What isn’t used up, is stored as fat. So if you reduce carbohydrates to what is actually needed, you won’t store fat.
Diets, though, take it one step further and severely restrict carbohydrates and calorie intake. Weight loss is pretty quick in the beginning when there aren’t many carbohydrates or calories coming in. Your body will get used to this new amount and plateau the weight loss. Making motivation to continue hard.
Diets are too restrictive. There’s no wiggle room. If you don’t follow it exactly, you won’t see the weight loss results you’re desiring. And if you don’t see the results, then what’s the point in doing it?
Diets are viewed as short term
Be honest, when you start a diet, do you have in your mind you will be on it forever? Some popular diets right now are the Carnivore diet, Ketogenic diet, and Macro diet.
The Carnivore diet doesn’t allow anything that is plant based, you can only eat food coming from an animal.
The Ketogenic diet severely restricts carbohydrates with the intent to put your body into ketosis so your body’s preferred source of energy is fat.
The Macro diet gives you a target goal for the amount of macronutrients you’re allowed to eat each day, making you count everything you eat.
None of these diets are sustainable long term. There is too much restriction, planning, counting and prep involved to be long term. Most people that follow these diets end up eating a lot of processed meats and other foods to hit their target numbers for the day. In turn, they feel terrible.
Diets don’t teach coping skills for stress
What are your coping skills when you have a stressful day? I know for me, if I was being told I couldn’t eat something and I had a stressful day, I’d want to eat that thing even more! This is the breaking point of most diets because you just want to come home and binge on the forbidden food.
Bonus Reason
The last reason I find diets don’t work is because people go into them with weight loss as their only motivation. When the weight loss slows or stops, motivation stops. Weight fluctuates five pounds any given day and is determined by more than just what you eat. It just isn’t a good indicator of health or a good motivational influence.
Instead, pay attention to how you feel. When you have made the changes that provide more energy, less pain and better digestive health, you are on the right track.
Anything termed a “diet” isn’t going to work. Changing your lifestyle will. Your lifestyle dictates your health. So if you slowly incorporate sustainable wellness changes into your lifestyle, the changes you make will stick.
If you need some help getting started with those lifestyle changes, I’d love to talk with you! Book a call with me today by clicking here. Let’s talk soon!
