Overeating is now a larger problem than starvation world-wide. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), world-wide obesity rates have almost tripled since 1975. There are a lot of trendy diets and regiments out there, most of which are temporary. The restrictive nature of most “diets” out there makes them difficult to follow let alone maintain. Many diets come with a specific brand or food that a company is trying to market, which takes away from the concept of incorporating a variety of healthy foods for optimal results and satiety. Additionally, what a lot of these diet trends lack proper education and insight into science and human anatomy.
Consuming calories, which come from fat, protein and carbohydrates, both provides energy for daily living and determines a person’s weight. This consumption – eating and drinking – is referred to as “energy in.” What you burn throughout the day, especially through physical activity, is referred to as “energy out.” So, energy balance is established through the balance of what you eat and drink compared to the calories you burn in a given day. As you might guess, consuming more calories than you are burning throughout the day results in weight gain, whereas burning more calories throughout the day compared to consumption of calories results in weight loss. Balancing that energy in and energy out overtime is what results in weight maintenance.
So, a major reason that trend diets are not sustainable long-term is that they lack the science behind the energy in, energy out balance that our bodies naturally deal with. Instead, they often focus on one food or food group to avoid completely, or one food or food group to mostly consume. Neither approach is sustainable long-term.
Further, diet trends are created to appeal to the masses, rather than focusing on individual intervention, which is another key to a successful, sustainable weight loss program. Each human body differs from the next, and so it only makes sense that our weight loss and weight gain patterns would vary from person to person. For optimal results, it’s best to talk to a weight loss professional who can tailor an individualized plan to your specific needs and challenges.
ACE Fitness Journal published research findings from Buchanan & Sheffield (2017) on why dieters fail. A few reasons include:
- Improving one’s health does not play a role in many people’s motivation to lose weight.
- Many dieters ultimately return to their previous eating habits. A person’s diet can be successful, but once the allotted time period is over, it is easy to slip back into old habits and routines.
- Media and marketing messages confuse people. Many people feel torn between foods they want to eat and those they are supposed to restrict. Even nutrition and health professionals give conflicting advice from their counterparts throughout the country and the world.
- Poor self-esteem can lead to failure. A negative mindset can lead a dieter to make excuses for not being successful, thus making it easier to walk away from his or her chosen diet.
Courtesy of Kravitz, Len. “50 Ways to Cut Calories.” ACE Fitness Journal, vol. 15, no. 1, Jan. 2018, pp. 25–31.