Picture this; it’s the New Year, or perhaps it’s 12 weeks before a big holiday, or 6 months before a big event. You’ve decided enough is enough. You will lose weight this time, and you will keep it off. You decide you are going to follow a new diet this time to help you lose weight; Kathy down the road did it and has lost 3 stone already! It could be keto, Slimming World, veganism, ultra-low calorie; the type of diet doesn’t matter. All that matters is this time, it will work.
The first week goes really well. You feel super motivated; “this is easy!”, you think to yourself. You’re able to stick to the diet perfectly, portioning out your food, avoiding all carbs and processed foods, eating only your pre-prepared meals, drinking only water or black tea or coffee, feeling better already. You’ve already lost 5lbs from this first week! You’ll be at your goal weight in no time at this rate.
The next week is a little tougher. There was a deadline at work which meant you had to stay late one day, meaning you had less time to make dinner. “No matter”, you think. “I still managed to do it, even if it did mean I had to stay up later than usual. It’s still doable”. You lose a further 5lbs this week. This gives you the motivation to keep going.
The following week, you get invited out for a meal and a few drinks with your friends. You think about it, tempted; it’s been so long since you saw them, and you’re craving some time to let your hair down. But, you have to think about your diet. You won’t make your goal weight if you give into the desire to go out. You decline. The day comes and goes and you feel sad that you’re stuck inside whilst your friends are out having fun. But it will be worth it when it comes to the weigh in.
3lbs lost. Not quite as good as last week. But not bad. You still feel motivated, but perhaps not as much as before.
The next week rolls around. You feel quite stressed because of work and family life. You find it difficult to find the time to make your meals and snacks for the week. You stick to the diet as best as you can; but, because it isn’t very flexible, you find there are a few meals you aren’t able to make perfectly fit the diet because the shops don’t sell something ready made, and after all, you don’t really have the time this week to meal prep.
0lb lost. You’ve plateaued.
Your friends invite you out to eat again this week. Motivation is running low. “Screw it”, you think. “I am going to go and enjoy time with my friends. I just won’t eat anything, or if I do, it will just be a salad. I won’t drink any alcohol”. Inevitably though, the lack of weight loss this week eats away at you in your brain. Whilst you’re out, you get the familiar thoughts; “what is the point in sticking to this if I’m not losing any weight? I might as well enjoy myself. I’ll start again tomorrow”. And you do. You, if anything, eat more and drink more than you usually do. The diet has turned this food and drink into “forbidden fruit”, and you’re hungry for more.
2lbs gained.
Inevitably, you don’t start again tomorrow. Your old habits slip back in. You continue down the path you’ve always followed, and nothing has changed.
Sound familiar?
Why diets don’t work
Diet’s don’t work because, generally, they don’t work with all parts of you and your lifestyle.
There are hundreds of reasons we eat the way we eat; perhaps it’s due to taste, yes, but it’s also due to the time we have to buy, cook and prepare food, due to our finances, our families tastes and preferences, our social life, our work/life balance, our cooking knowledge and skill, our culture and upbringing, and so much more.
The reality is, no diet which is pre-planned and has rigid rules will ever meet our needs for all of the reasons we eat a specific way. You might require more time than you have, more knowledge and skills than you have, more money than you have, or it might require you to make things your family doesn’t enjoy, things which don’t fall within your cultural tastes, or things you don’t enjoy in general.
If you wish to change your habits and behaviours for life, you need to understand exactly why you make the decisions to eat the way you eat, and you then need to find a way of changing your diet which will still accommodate these.
Be honest with yourself; do you eat that pizza for taste, or for convenience? Do you eat fish and chips because it’s what you really want to eat, or because it’s a cultural or social thing?
Work out what you eat and why you eat it. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think it is a good enough reason to eat it; ultimately, it is still the reason. Once you understand these reasons, you may be able to find adjustments and small changes that will fit that reason. This will make you less likely to fail at sticking to the diet. Examples of these, and how you could respond to them, include;
- “I eat takeaway’s because I’m exhausted and they are convenient as I don’t have to cook anything” >>> a healthy ready meal may be a better alternative, such as Field Doctor. Equally, if you have time on the weekend, you could meal prep for the week to ensure you have an alternative food source to fall back on, and prevent you from picking up the phone to the Indian or Chinese restaurant.
- “I eat lots of chocolate and sweets because I enjoy the taste” >>> what is it about these foods you enjoy? Be specific. Can you find any foods with similar qualities but less calories/ more nutritious? Have you tried having a smaller amount of these foods, and pairing them with protein and fibre to reduce hunger and improve the nutrition?
- “When I go out I’ll order anything I want because it’s a treat”>>> why do you do this? Do you actually enjoy doing this? Would you feel better if you had a moderate amount of food and drink instead of stuffing yourself? Are there any underlying emotions there which may be impacting this decision?
But that isn’t the only reason diets don’t work
Many people who struggle with their weight have other reasons they eat other than being hungry. It could be emotional, habitual, environmental; either way, these will throw a spanner in the works when it comes to any form of weight loss, because of the fact that there is often an unmet need there, especially when it comes to emotional eating. No traditional diet ever actually addresses these issues, and so you aren’t equipped with the skills to deal with them when they come along.
How to make sustainable diet changes that stick
The first thing you are going to want to do is get rid of the traditional notion of a diet; this temporary thing which requires extreme changes for a small amount of time which can be forgotten about after a while. Reframing this in your mind is a much healthier way of looking at nutrition and dietary changes, and can give you the freedom and flexibility you need.
Instead, making small and sustainable dietary changes which work for you and your lifestyle is a much better habit. Building on these over the course of a few weeks, months, or even years, is an easier way to maintain the changes over time. Equally, identifying reasons for eating other than hunger (such as emotional or habitual eating) and working on improving these is vitally important to keep you on track. Stay tuned for further blog posts discussing both of these topics!
Diets Debunked 