Six reasons why your diet is failing, according to experts
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How to lose weight is one of the most pressing health questions for many people, and studies have found that more than half of Britons admit to starting a diet or fitness regime - fully expecting to fail.
Because of this, a massive number of people are serial dieters who skip from one eating plan to the next, trying to find best way to lose weight and keep it off.
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Hide AdWhilst there are thousands of diets to choose from, the overall rule is if you want to lose weight, get toned, build muscle, or even just improve your energy levels, you’ll probably need to change what you eat.
An exercise and nutrition expert at strength sports website Fitness Volt said: “Provided that your diet of choice meets your caloric needs, it will have the desired effect.
“For example, consume fewer calories than you need, and you will burn fat and lose weight, but consume more than you need, and you will gain weight.
“However, most people fail to stick with their diet long enough for it to work sustainably. They are strong out of the gate but soon fall off the wagon and return to their previously sub-optimal eating plan.
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Hide Ad“That’s why so many of us lose weight only to regain it shortly afterwards, and it seems long-term, sustainable weight loss is rare nowadays.
“Fortunately, healthy eating doesn’t have to be complicated or unpleasant, and weight management doesn’t have to take over your life.
“You don’t even have to give up your favourite foods. However, you will need to quit looking for short-term fixes and adopt healthier long-term habits.”
Below, Fitness Volt experts share six reasons why most diets fail:
1. Foods are too restrictive
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Hide AdMost diets ban certain food or food groups. For example, the paleo diet excludes all processed foods, while keto severely limits your carb intake. Other diets will cut out sugar or alcohol.
The problem is whilst cutting out certain foods can help contribute to your daily calorie deficit, this technique is also guaranteed to trigger cravings.
Essentially, any diet that bans a particular food or food group will invariably result in cravings, driving you to cheat on your diet.
Allow yourself the smallest amount of this particular food or drink to allow your body to feel like it isn’t being deprived of something. Everything in moderation.
2. The cost of ingredients
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Hide AdA diet of healthy, fresh ingredients is always good, but with food being one of life’s unavoidable expenses, it will be harder for you to sustain this diet plan long-term if you aren’t always financially stable.
For example, some diets specify that you must eat expensive foods and that somehow these products are better for weight loss than those that are more reasonably priced.
Organic vegetables and grass-fed beef from free-roaming cattle cost a lot more than the basics you get at your local dudget supermarket but nutritionally are not all that different. They certainly won’t help you lose weight faster.
For a diet to be sustainable, you need to be comfortable with how much your food costs. For example, if your grocery bill doubles overnight, you have got a readymade excuse for quitting your new eating plan.
3. Too complicated
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Hide AdTo make diets unique, they are often unnecessarily complicated. This complexity can often cause people to make mistakes or just give up after a while.
Food combing diets are a perfect example of this. Some may say things like “you can’t eat fat and carbs in the same meal,” which looks okay on paper but makes meal prep far more complicated than it needs to be.
Ultimately, for any diet to work, it needs to be simple enough to follow every day.
4. Perfection or failure
Diets can often be very prescriptive and allow no variation.
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Hide AdHowever, in everyday life, any diet can be difficult to stick to. Perhaps you have a friend's birthday or an off day and you decide to indulge in something sweet.
The reality is that your diet doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to pretty good most of the time - which is more than enough to reach weight loss goals.
5. Not catered for the long-term
Putting a timeframe on any diet sets you up for failure.
Some of the most common ways diets are advertised are through their quick fix time stamp, like “lose 30 pounds in 90 days” or “30-day get ripped plan.”
Excess body fat accumulates over many years, and no one goes to bed lean and then wakes up fat.
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Hide AdAchieving your body goal could take many months - even years. To achieve a significant result in just a few weeks, any diet must be very restrictive and, therefore, it’ll be unsustainable as your body will soon put the weight back on which it dramatically lost.
Before considering any diet, ask yourself, “can I follow it for the next 6-12 months?”
6. Based on little or no science
Some diets are based on very flawed science or may not be based on any science at all.
One example of this is calorie-burning or negative-calorie foods, such as celery. No food burns more calories than it contains, and these claims are very misleading.
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Hide AdEffective diets work by manipulating your calorie balance. Consume fewer calories, and your body will make up the shortfall by using stored body fat for energy. No deficit means no fat burning. There are no shortcuts around this law of thermodynamics.