10 Reasons to Skip Falling for Fad Diets This New Year
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Are you feeling like you need to work off that “holiday weight gain”? Are you tempted to get into fad diets to lose weight quickly? I’m sorry to say this, but fad diets are not the solution. In fact, fad diets can have long-lasting effects on your health – and they aren't good!
To save you from getting into the fad diet trap, we are diving more into this topic in this episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast. I’m going to share ten reasons why it’s important to avoid these kinds of diets at all costs!
What I discussed:
Making extreme changes to your diet can be unhealthy because it can disrupt your body's natural balance of nutrients and may not provide all of the nutrients that your body needs to function properly.
Fad diets typically require you to drastically cut your calories. Eating too few calories can be harmful to your metabolism because it can slow down your body's natural calorie-burning process.
Many fad diets are not based on sound, scientific principles. They often make exaggerated or misleading claims about their effectiveness or the health benefits they offer.
Fad diets are hard to stick to long-term. This most often leads you to weight cycling… where you lose a bunch of weight, gain it back, lose a bunch of weight, gain even more back, and so on.
Fad diets can be expensive… Many of these diets require you to purchase special meal plans or supplements, which can be costly and at the same time, don’t actually provide any additional health benefits.
Some fad diets promote cutting out carbohydrates… which, if you are looking to change your body composition, this is NOT a smart move.
Some fad diets promote cutting out fat… when in fact, fat can be SO helpful when trying to lose weight or build the body you want.
Fad diets will take away from your happiness and prevent you from living your life to the fullest.
Fad diets trigger unhealthy relationships with our bodies.
Fad diets NEVER led me to building the body I wanted and probably won’t lead you to building the body you want either.
Links about Fueling your Body:
5 Dieting Truths You Need To Know
A Breakdown Of Macronutrients & Why You Need Them
11 Ways Macro Counting Changed My Relationship With Food
5 Steps To Begin Your Macro Counting Journey
The 5 Macro Counting Approaches: Which Is Best For You
Food Scale: The Benefits, How To Choose + How To Use It
If you want more from me, be sure to check out:
Instagram: @embraceyourreal | @movementwithjulie
Transcript:
Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. A podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I issue a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get it, let's go.
Hello and welcome back to another episode on the Embrace Your Real podcast. Today we're chatting all about fad diets. I feel like this is a topic that I need to discuss every new year, which is a bummer, but it also gives me the opportunity to share with you why I am so against fad diets. And I don't want you to write this off if you're like, I know fad diets are bad.
Hear me out because I think we can get so bought into these lies, especially with like the marketing, nowadays, people are getting so smart with marketing because they know that the majority of people know that a fad diet is not good. They know that it's not healthy for them, and yet they still are enticed because the marketing is getting sneakier and sneakier year after year. And I just want you to know that there are so many health dangers when it comes to a fad diet. And I want to kind of break that down with you because I don't want you to fall into that trap. And I know that it can be something that we say, oh, my gosh, no, I would never go on a fad diet for like a month or two months or three months. I'm only going to do this. I'm going to try and lose the 5 to 7 pounds or the 10 pounds. And then once I get to that place, like in two or three weeks, if I follow this fad diet, once they get to that place, then I'll be able to go into a sustainable lifestyle. And girl, that is a dangerous place to be and I do not want you to fall into that trap this year. And so that's why in today's episode I'm going to be outlining ten reasons why I have to urge you to skip the fad diets at all costs in 2023.
Before we dive in, though, I want to share this review comes from Vicster1972 says. She gave a five star review and said totally relatable. Julie talks to you like a real friend. Her episodes are short and to the point. Luckily, I have lots of episodes to catch up on.
Well, I'm so grateful. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to send in this review if you haven't already rate it and then reviewed the podcast or if you haven't done it in a while, I just ask that you send in a review, you can scootch over to Apple Podcasts, type in, embrace your real first, make sure you subscribe so that you never miss an episode. It's the plus sign in the top right corner, and then once you're on that page, you can actually scroll down and that's where you can leave a rating and review. It really just not only helps us out, kind of know how these podcasts are helping you, it also helps other women who are in search of a good new podcast that can speak some real talk into their life. And if they go on to the podcast page, they're able to then look at your review and say, Oh, if this is helping this person in this area, that's actually what I'm needing. And then they become a new listener and we're able to impact more women that way. So thank you in advance for doing that. I really genuinely appreciate you. Let's dive into the ten reasons why it's important to skip the fad diets at all costs.
Number one, making extreme changes to your diet can be super unhealthy because it actually disrupts your body's natural balance of nutrients and may not provide all the nutrients that your body needs to function properly. Which leads me to number two.
Fad diets actually typically require you to drastically cut your calories, and when you eat too few of calories, you're harming your metabolism because it actually slows down your body's natural calorie burning processes. And when you're not eating enough calories to meet your body's energy needs, it's going to go into a state of starvation mode, for lack of a better term, where essentially it begins to conserve energy by slowing down your metabolism. And this can make it even more difficult for you to lose weight and maintain a healthy weight over time. And that's likely not what you want in the first place. And yet you're not realizing that by going on this fad diet, even if it's for two or three or four weeks, that that can harm you and do a lot more damage than you think.
Number three, many fad diets are not based on sound scientific principles. They often make these exaggerated or misleading claims about their effectiveness or health benefits that they offer. But let's be real. Most of these fad diets are based on personal experience, at least in the short term. We see people losing, you know, 15, 20 pounds in two or three weeks. But do we really ever hear about how they're doing two years later? Do we ever hear the side of the story where it says, Yeah, she stayed on this diet for five years and maintained her 20-pound weight loss that she initially got in two weeks without any issues? No, we never hear about those types of stories. We only see this highlight reel. And if you actually stop and think about it, oftentimes you're seeing the same people marketing the same thing every New year, right? Oh, Susie, she went on a new diet. Oh, my gosh. She looks amazing. Three weeks later, she lost 14 pounds. That's crazy. Next year goes by. Oh, Susie. Oh, my gosh. She looks amazing. She lost 13, 14 pounds in two weeks. She looks amazing. It's the same person going in this vicious cycle. Which leads me to number four.
Fad diets are hard to stick to long term. Right. And this oftentimes leads you to weight cycling where you lose a bunch of weight and then you gain it back and then you lose a bunch of weight and then gain even more back and so on and so forth. The goal is not to lose weight quickly. Gain it back eventually. The goal is to create lasting results. Fad diets won't do that for you, plain and simple.
And number five, fad diets can be very expensive. Like many of these diets require you to purchase a specific meal plan or a specific supplement. And that can be costly. Mean I've seen people spend upwards of 100 to $250 a month just on these things. You don't actually, you know, that really don't actually provide any additional health benefits. And it's because these people and these companies are getting really smart and they're saying like they're building a product into something because they know people are going to buy it. They're going to buy. Oh, my gosh. Well, I need X, Y, and Z product in order for me to stick with it. Right. Most of the time, these products are they're not science backed. They're they're making these false claims and they're trying to sell you X, Y, and Z, and they're telling you that you have to have X, Y, and Z to lose weight. If they ever say that, or if you ever hear like you need X, Y, and Z product to lose weight. Plain and simple. Just tell yourself it's a fad diet. It's a fad diet. It is not sustainable. If someone is telling you that you have to rely on a specific product or supplement to lose the weight. People have been maintaining a healthy body off of real food for centuries without spending all this extra money on weird foods or supplements. So please keep that in mind.
Number six, some fad diets promote cutting out an entire food group carbohydrates, which if you're looking to change your body composition, this is not a smart move. In order to change your body composition, you need to build muscle. Right. And it's muscle that really reshapes your body and it's muscle that makes you look more toned and leaner. And here's the thing. Carbohydrates are a key, essential role in building muscle. And here's why. Because carbohydrates are an important source of energy for the body, especially during physical activity. When you move your body, especially when you resistance train like you're doing dumbbell workouts, your muscles use glycogen. Right. A form of carbohydrate stored in the muscle as fuel. So consuming enough carbohydrates will ensure that your muscles have enough glycogen to support your workouts and can also help you recover afterwards. And this is because carbohydrates play a huge, you know, key role in the protein synthesis, which is the process essentially of your body building and repairing your muscle tissue and your muscle fibers. That being said, if you want to effectively build muscle and change your body composition, you are going to want to eat the carbs, plain and simple.
Number seven, some fad diets promote cutting out fat when in fact fat can actually be super helpful when trying to lose weight or build the body that you want. First of all, fat is a really important macronutrient that provides you with not only the energy, but it also ensures that you are absorbing certain essential vitamins and minerals. And plus, eating fat can actually help you stabilize your blood sugar levels and make your meal so much more filling and like filling and satisfying. This means that you're going to end up feeling less hungry throughout the day and you'll be less likely to overindulge and get off track. Which means cutting out fats can lead you to eating way more than you actually need in the long run. And also, Fats can play an essential role in terms of keeping your hormones healthy. So keep that in mind. It is so important to not cut out specific food groups. Which leads me to number eight.
I know when I personally did and when I was going through these fad diets and I was cutting out entire food groups, the fad diets literally made me the unhappiest I'd ever been. I was constantly thinking about food like all my energy went towards what was I going to eat next? What was going to be my next meal? Oh my gosh, I'm so hungry. I'm skipping out on so many experiences with friends and family because I'm so concerned about the food that I was eating. I would skip out on so many things simply because I didn't have the energy. I would punish myself for eating certain things that I told myself I shouldn't have eaten. It was a really, really dark place in my life for a decade plus in my life. College especially, was just, oh my gosh, if I could go back. I was just talking to a friend today and they were saying, Man, if I could go back to high school and college, knowing what I know now, like my experience was so different and it just got me thinking like, man, my experience in college, especially just because that was a really dark time in terms of my eating and body image disorder, because I was so scared of gaining the freshman 15 and I actually lost like 20 pounds and I was like the skinniest I had ever been. And I was so, so deep in this dark hole of being scared of food and telling myself I couldn't eat X, Y and Z. And if I could go back in that time, like, man, I would have so many crazy and amazing memories. I'm. Sure it is, because I wouldn't have skipped out on so much. But that being said, we don't dwell on the past. I'm so grateful that I went through all that I did because it has led me to my purpose today, which is talking to you and hopefully saving you some time and stress and unnecessary things that you don't need to be feeling simply because you think you need to cut out certain food groups. And I don't know about you, but I personally never want to live that way again. And by skipping out and not following these fad diets, that is one sure way to ensure that I have a very, very healthy relationship with food. Which leads me to number nine.
Fad diets really triggered me to develop an unhealthy relationship with not only food, but my body. Right. And the fad diets always led me to believe that my body was never good enough, that I needed to lose more and more weight. I would lose the weight. I still wasn't good enough, and so I would fad diet harder. And I was just in this toxic cycle and I hated my body more than anything. I was so self conscious I had zero confidence. And honestly now I can't imagine living a life where I didn't embrace my body for everything that it is and celebrate everything that it does for me on a daily basis. It's really, really sad for me to think about because I was in such a dark place and I know it truly all started from me, like falling into this vicious cycle of fad diets.
And number ten, fad diets never led me to actually building the body that I wanted after a decade, decade, you guys of dieting and telling myself that it wasn't good enough and restricting myself from all this food, I still didn't have the body that I wanted. Like I put in so much work and so much energy day after day, so much deprivation, so much punishment, so much fun that I missed out on. Like and yet I still didn't have the body that I wanted.
So why would I try to stick with something that doesn't work long term? It just doesn't make any sense. And I personally have just found that I've been able to live my life. I've been able to love and appreciate and celebrate my body, and I have been able to eat all of the amazing things. I've been able to have such a healthy relationship with food because I educated myself about food and I was empowered around food.
It was no longer something where I felt ashamed of where I felt I felt for me for a decade of my life. I was so unsure around food because I never taken the time to actually educate myself about food. And when I was so unsure about it, it would just it would create even more stress. And so I would just try to push it away as much as possible. But food is an integral part of life, and if you don't have a healthy relationship with food like your the other areas in your life are going to suffer. It's not if it's when. Like food, like I said, it's an integral part of our day to day. And so if you don't have a healthy relationship with food, if you're not feeling empowered or educated around food, that's huge. That's something that man, I just want every woman to feel like they can be empowered and have a healthy relationship with food and their body.
And so personally, I have found just educating myself and feeling empowered around food. I have really learned that from utilizing the tool of macro counting. Personally, it has changed my life in so many ways. I've talked about macro counting in many different episodes in the past. You can go back and listen to them. There is so many different approaches that you can take with macro counting too. I think sometimes people think back accounting is black or white, and I tell women, no, there are. So I have five in particular different approaches. Schumacher County, that can really help all different types of women depending on where you're at. And you know, for me, in this season of my life, I'm really focusing on my overall caloric intake to ensure that I'm fueling my body properly. And I'm really heavily focusing on my protein intake just because I know that I feel my best when I'm eating enough protein and I'm eating enough overall calories.
But there are so many different approaches to macro accounting. I will link some amazing episodes that I've done on this topic in the show notes below. If you are interested, you just want to learn more. But for me, I have been able to maintain the body that I want for an entire decade like it has been. You know, I graduated in 2012, so. Oh my gosh, it's been ten years since my college years. And I really started my macro counting journey kind of fresh out of college. It was 2013. 2014 was when I really got into it. And man, I'm so grateful that I am. I have no longer felt the need to do yo yo diets. I'm never, you know, losing a ton of weight and gaining a ton of weight back. Like, I feel like I have found a place to be able to have lasting results and create a sustainable lifestyle.
And so if that's you, if you want to learn more about it, I will link not only the specific episodes that you can tune in to and just learn more about, but also I will link my online academy. It's called the Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy gives you a super simple step by step guide as to how to get started and just know that this is not a diet. Macro counting is a tool. It teaches you how much your body needs to function at its optimum.
We're not telling you you need to eat X, Y, and Z foods. I would never tell you that because I know that that's not sustainable. And we all have different enjoyment when it comes to different food. We love different types of foods. I know for for me personally, you, if you've been following for a while, you know, I am a Texas Roadhouse girl. I love a good Texas Roadhouse. If there is one meal, it's Texas Roadhouse. It's the bread and butter. I could eat those all day, every day. It's so good.
But for some other people, they're like sushi all day, every day. They could eat sushi for other people, it's a it's a cheeseburger all day everyday, like whatever it is for you, we all have different taste buds. And that's the most beautiful part about micro-housing, is that it is not a diet. It is teaching you the fundamentals of protein, carbs and fats and how much your body needs. So again, if you want to learn more about it, macro counting made simple dot com. And I will also link some free shows that you can go tune into after this episode that will really help you. Okay.
So let me recap those ten reasons why I need you to avoid the fad diets at all costs in 2023.
Number one, making extreme changes to your diet can be super unhealthy because it can disrupt your body's natural balance of nutrients and might not provide all the nutrients that your body needs to function properly.
Number two, fad diets typically require you to drastically cut your calories. And remember, eating too few of calories can be harmful to your metabolism because it can actually slow down your body's natural calorie burning processes.
Number three, many fad diets are not based on sound scientific principles. They're often exaggerated or making these misleading claims about their effectiveness or the health benefits that they, quote unquote, offer.
Number four, fad diets are hard to stick to long term. This most often leads people to the weight cycling where you lose a bunch of weight, then you gain it back, then you lose a bunch of weight, gain and gain back even more and so on and so forth.
Number five, fad diets can be super expensive. A lot of these diets require you to purchase some sort of meal plan or supplement, which can be super costly and at the same time don't actually provide any additional health benefits.
Number six, some fad diets promote cutting out entirely carbohydrates, which, if you're looking to change your body composition, is not a smart move.
Number seven, some fad diets also promote cutting out fat, which again, in fact, can be super detrimental to you if you are trying to lose weight or build the body that you want or maintain healthy, happy hormones.
Number eight fad diets will take you away from your happiest. Number eight, fad diets will take away from your happiness and can prevent you from living your life to your fullest.
And number nine, fad diets can trigger a super unhealthy relationship with your body.
And number ten, fad diets have personally never led me to believe in the body that I want and will likely not lead you to building the body that you want in 2023 either.
So there you have it. Those are the ten reasons why I need you to stop falling for fad diets. I need you to look into creating a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. I want you to find true joy in in not only your body this year, but I want you to find true joy in the foods that you're eating. I don't want you to skip out on events or memories because of your lack of knowledge or feeling empowered around food. I want you to feel empowered around food. I want you to have a thriving relationship with your body and with your health and fitness during this year.
So again, if you want to learn more, you can go to the link in the show notes below to learn more about my Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy, as well as listen to any of the other episodes that I think you'll find really beneficial in terms of just learning more about the tool of macro counting and how it can help you this year.
That is all that I have for today's episode. I hope that you found this helpful. If you have a friend, a coworker or someone in your life that you feel like could really benefit from this specific episode, I just ask that you share it out with them.
You can copy the link send to them in a text message. You can also screenshot this and post it up on your story. We love connect with you guys. That is all that I have for today's episode. I love you so much and I'll talk to you in the next hour.
All right, sister. That's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie, A lot better. Yes, It's with an A in the middle for that daily post workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks, and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.