Why Diets Set You Up to Fail
Hey sister! Do you have weight you want to lose and are thinking about going on a diet?
Before you do, I want to have a little chat with you about diets and why you might want to think twice before you start one.
So, let’s be real: how many times have you told yourself the diet starts Monday?
Most likely, way too many times to count. I know this because I have been right there with you and I know I can’t even begin to count!
But, have you ever stopped to wonder why the diet keeps starting over on Monday? Why did you get off the diet in the first place?
I have the answer for you…
It’s because diets set you up for failure.
Why Diets Set You Up to Fail
We’ve all heard the story about the girl who lost 15 pounds in two weeks going keto or eating vegan. And, when you see that, no wonder you want to jump on the diet bandwagon. You want those same results!
Unfortunately, that girl’s amazing weight loss is only a small part of the story.
When someone goes on a “diet” or even says they are going to “eat healthier,” this typically means they are drastically restricting their calories.
For some reason, we think we can over restrict ourselves until we reach our “goal weight” and then just go right back to eating the way we were before, and still keep the weight off. I hate to break it to you, but it doesn’t work quite like that.
I get it–we all know the whole calories-in, calories-out thing. Yes, eating more calories than you burn will cause you to gain weight and eating less calories than you burn will help you lose weight. I’m not saying that isn’t true, but I am saying there is more we need to consider.
This is what happens when you drastically cut your calories…
Let’s say your body is used to consuming 2,200 calories a day and regularly burns about the same. Now, let’s say you decide to go on a diet and are only eating 1,400 calories a day. I know your thought process: That puts you in an 800-calorie deficit so you’re going to lose lots of weight super fast. Am I right?
Not quite. No matter how hard you try, you can’t outsmart your body. When you’re eating way less calories than your body is burning each day, your body catches on and makes the necessary adjustments. If your body is burning 2,200 calories a day, but only getting 1,400, it definitely won’t continue to burn 2,200 calories!
Your body will calculate how many calories you’re giving it daily so it can then begin to match the amount of calories it burns. It does this by slowing down all its processes, your metabolism included!
So, you’ll see great results at first because for awhile your body is still burning the 2,200 calories while you’re only giving it 1,400. But once it makes the necessary adjustments, you’re going to experience a plateau. You’ll feel frustrated that you aren’t seeing the same results at the same rate so you cut your calories even more.
You lose more weight, your body adapts, you plateau and then you cut your calories even more. The cycle repeats. Sound familiar?
Now you’re eating next to nothing, you’re always starving and battling crazy food cravings, you’ve plateaued again and you’re just so dang frustrated!
Plus, when you cut your calories way too low, you cause hormonal imbalances that actually make you feel hungrier. So, not only are you not allowing yourself to eat enough food, now your body feels so much hungrier, screaming for more food! Yikes!
To maintain your weight loss, you’re going to have battle that hunger day in and day out. I’ve been there before and I know how absolutely terrible it is! You have zero energy, zero concentration, zero personality and zero motivation. What kind of life is that?
So, finally you just can’t battle your hunger and crazy food cravings for one more day and you go on a full-on binge. It’s one day, then two days, then a week and, before you know it, you’re completely off your diet.
You know what happens? You gain all your weight back, if not more. And, let me add, you gain it back extremely fast!
You’re upset about gaining all your weight back (and most likely more), so you tell yourself your diet starts again on Monday. (Ahhhh, see where I’m at?) Yep, the cycle just continues…
But now, not only is your metabolism so super slow, but long-term damage has been done. Which, if you repeat this cycle for awhile, gaining weight to lose weight only to gain it back again, can take years to recover.
This means, if you continue to “diet”, no matter how hard you try, it will feel like losing weight is next to impossible.
Now you understand why diets set you up for failure?
This isn’t the only way diets set you up to fail. Here are seven mistakes you’re probably making that are preventing you from seeing results from your diet.
Mistakes You’re Probably Making (and Need to Avoid)
1. Avoid Cutting Out Entire Food Groups.
Alright ladies, I’ve got a serious question for you: When you’re going on a diet to lose weight, do you think the answer is to cut out an entire food group?
If you answered yes, I’m guessing one of the following applies to you:
You cut out protein because you’re afraid it will make your muscles bulky.
You cut out fat because you think eating fat directly translates into storing fat.
You cut out carbs because all the hype around the keto diet has convinced you to believe carbs are the devil.
If you believe one of the above, I have a few things I need to set you straight about.
Why you shouldn’t cut out protein:
If you’re working out to change your body composition, your muscles need you to consume protein. Don’t let “gaining muscle” scare you–it doesn’t mean getting bulky, it means building lean muscle mass. Muscle is way more compact than fat and will make you appear much leaner.
Plus, muscle burns up to three times more calories than fat. And you burn 30% of the calories you consume from protein through digestion alone. Both equal a faster metabolism.
Heck yeah!
So go eat some protein!
Why you shouldn’t cut out fat:
Alright, now let’s talk about fat. If you think the fat you eat gets stored as excess body fat, you couldn’t be further more wrong.
The process of burning fat requires dietary fat (the fat you eat). So, believe it or not, that stubborn fat you’re trying so hard to get rid of (especially around your belly, thighs and butt) desperately needs you to consume nourishing fats in order for you to burn it off. Without it, your body is going to hang on for dear life to that excess fat.
So start including fats like extra-virgin olive oil, coconut oil, full-fat coconut milk, nuts and seeds, nut and seed butters, salmon, grass-fed meat, eggs, and grass-fed ghee and butter, if you want to prime your body for fat burning!
Why you shouldn’t cut out carbs:
I know most of you reading this think eating less carbs will solve all your problems.
Not quite.
In fact, eliminating carbs can actually cause you more problems.
As women, our hormones are very sensitive, and eating a low-carb diet for too long will cause hormonal imbalances that prevent us from losing weight. When you think your low-carb diet is helping you lose weight, it’s actually just causing you to cling onto fat.
No thank you!
What does all that mean?
You need all three macronutrients in order to lose weight and see the results you want. It’s that simple!
2. Avoid Ignoring Your Hunger.
Dieting stops you from honoring your hunger signals. You think you need to eat less so you’re constantly ignoring your body when it tells you it needs food. This causes you to feel hungry all the time.
Our willpower is not unlimited. When you allow your feelings of hunger to build and build, your willpower will eventually run out. Unfortunately when it does, you have ignored your hunger for too long and you completely overindulge. You end up eating way more food than if you would have just listened to your hunger in the first place. Instead of eating one piece of pizza, you eat an entire pizza, or instead of eating a bowl of chips, you eat an entire bag of chips.
You then punish yourself by eating less later, which triggers the cycle of under-eating and overeating, overindulging and over-restricting.
If you’re constantly eating too little only to turn around and eat too much, how will you ever see the results you want? This is why you need to avoid ignoring your hunger signals. Your body knows what it needs, when it needs it, so just listen to it.
3. Avoid Following Someone Else’s Diet.
Just because your best friend or your favorite Instagram influencer lost a bunch of weight on a certain diet, doesn’t mean you will too.
Your body is different than their body. You both have different activity levels, different metabolisms and overall different needs.
This means the diet they’re following might be right for them, but you need to figure out what is best for you.
The best way to do this is by listening to the signs of your body. Observe your hunger, energy levels and body composition when you begin making changes. If you’re hungry all the time, that’s a clear sign that diet isn’t right for you. The same goes if you feel like you’re always dragging or you aren’t seeing any changes in your body.
Rather than ditching what you’re doing altogether, make small tweaks here and there. It’s an ever-changing process that will take time. If you remain patient and continue to listen to the signs your body is giving you, you’ll find what’s right for you!
4. Avoid Overeating Healthy Foods.
Wait, this food is healthy? That means I can eat as much of it as I want!
Typically when we start dieting, we start educating ourselves on eating “healthier” foods.
When we find out a food is “healthy,” we think we can eat as much of it as we want.
Not so fast. Just because a food is “healthy” doesn’t mean it’s calorie-less. It doesn’t give you a free pass to dig in.
Let’s take a salad for example. Most likely you’re thinking you’re eating a salad, so of course it’s going to help you lose weight, right? Well if that salad is topped with salad dressing, chicken, cheese, avocado and nuts, you’re most likely consuming way more calories than your body actually needs in one meal.
It doesn’t matter if you are eating fruit, vegetables, nuts, or whatever that “healthy” food may be, they all still contain calories. And, at the end of the day, consuming more calories than you burn will cause you gain weight.
5. Avoid having too many food rules.
When we want to lose weight and start dieting, it’s so common for us to go from eating whatever we want whenever we want to having a long list of rules we need to follow. No carbs, no sugar, can’t eat after this time, can’t eat this and can’t eat that and the list just goes on and on. We make it so complicated–way more complicated than it needs to be!
We literally go from 0 to 100. So how do we think it’s realistic for us to follow every single rule, every single day?
When we can’t, we get discouraged, frustrated and unmotivated to continue.
Plus, how do we think following these “rules” is sustainable long term in our lives?
They aren’t. And you know what? They aren’t even necessary!
Let me tell you from my personal experience, building the body you want doesn’t require you to follow an endless list of rules.
The Solution…
I’m not trying to call you out on making these mistakes. I’ve made every single one of these over and over again for years!
I’m sharing this with you because I don’t want you to go through what I’ve gone through. Back then, I would have given anything for someone to tell me “Stop! Don’t do that! I have a better solution!” So, that’s what I’m here to tell you because I want you to learn from my mistakes.
After years of dieting and feeling completely hopeless, I finally discovered macro counting.
It works for every body and every lifestyle, because it's tailored for you. It’s customized to your current lifestyle and transforms with you throughout every phase of life. This allowed me to eat exactly what my body needed, taking my activity levels, my goals and what my body burns daily into consideration.
With macro counting, I never, ever have to overly restrict myself, I never have to cut out any foods from my diet (no way I’m giving up my pizza and ice cream again) and I never have to constantly battle hunger and food cravings anymore.
It’s sustainable long term.
You know what that means?
You get sustainable results. You get weight loss that lasts and you never have to go through that hopeless cycle of dieting ever again!
This is what happened when I started counting my macros:
I learned how to fuel my body to function at its optimum level.
I stopped putting in countless hours of work at the gym without seeing any results.
I finally started to burn body fat and tone up my body.
I quit letting diets control my life.
I didn’t have to fight to maintain my weight loss (it’s so simple to maintain!).
I started looking in the mirror and seeing a new sexy, confident woman in myself.
I’m curious, which fad diets have set you up for failure? Let’s talk about it! Leave a comment below.