Why Diet’s Dont Work… (And What Does!)

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘diet?’

Most of us think about something like this… “Okay, I am going to start Monday, first thing. I will cut out all carbs, no more sugar, absolutely no more fat (duh!), and eat lean and green each and every meal of the day! The less, the better! Just spinach, veggies, and chicken; nothing good and tasty. Maybe drink some gross tasting sh** that is supposed to be like unicorn blood and make the weight drop off. All while no alcohol, no sweets, no snacks, no fun. But… I will drop down to a 6-pack and lose all the all the extra weight I have put on in the last 5 years.”

Sound familiar?

A ‘diet’ is normally short term, super restrictive, and basically a synonym for no fun. You cut, cut, and cut… in the hopes of losing weight. It may even include hours on the treadmill with a little incline, with a guarantee to ‘drop 10 pounds in 2 weeks!’

Sometimes, yes, the weight might come off… but does it ever stay off? No. If it did our diet and weight loss industry would not be anywhere near the $66 BILLION it is in the United States today.

So, if diets are so hyped up and we spend BILLIONS of dollars on them each year, why don’t they work? And why do we keep trying? Well… so many factors.

1. Will-power depletes.

Read that again… Will-power depletes. The will-power you use to say no the chocolate chip cookie, to say no to a piece of warm bread on the table at restaurants, to ANYTHING that you think is ‘bad’… There is a finite amount of that. That means there is only so much… so the diet you created, saying no to a whole list of things you deem ‘bad’, psychologically, you can only do that for so long. No matter what you do, it will run out.

2. We feel like sh**.

9 times out of 10, diets make you feel restrictive, you constantly think about food, you are exhausted because you likely aren’t fueling your body, you’re looking towards the end of the tunnel, and so much more.

So, when we feel like crap our emotional brain starts to kick in… our emotions take over. Here is the important point: our rational brain does not make the decisions; our emotional brain does. So, when you start to hate the ‘diet life’ you’ve created, your emotions talk you out of it. You likely give up before you are done, and you have yet to lose weight…again!

Not only do our emotions talk us out of it, but they are the ones who talked us into it in the first place! But your body knows better, that it shouldn’t live a ‘diet life’ that kills all your happy cells. So, trying to focus on using your rational brain (the one that tells you the quick fix diet doesn’t work), not only your emotional brain (the one that tells you ‘Hell yeah! I can have 6 pack abs overnight…) during health decisions is important, difficult, but so important.

3. Most diets are supposed to help you ‘lose’. But many can cause your body to do the exact opposite.

Two things happen during a diet when you are restricting yourself… you restrict yourself so much that when you actually let yourself eat, you overeat to compensate, and your body is just cheering you on, as it feels the deprivation from near starvation and wants to make up for that loss. In addition, the restriction can also signal the body to think that it needs to store more when it gets food, as it thinks you are going into stress and has no idea how long it needs to live without proper nutrition. Both of these are evolutionary signals that help us survive but can contribute to many diets not being very successful.

Not only that, but diets DON’T LAST.

We have all tried countless different diets in the past, from detox, quick fixes, or supplements to take us to the promise land. I am sure that almost everyone can list enough to fill up one hand. Even if they were diet ideas that lasted 12 hours before you got hungry and said, ‘next week.’

Life is supposed to be fun. But that is nearly impossible when you are purposefully cutting out all the fun in your life. Something that is not sustainable will not last and will eventually crash and burn. Doing something over and over again that does not work… that’s insanity.

So, what does work? (The $66 billion question that we still seem to ignore and continue to support the diet industry.)

A LIFESTYLE. A habit based, dynamic balance, LIFE that you can still LIVE. NOT a one size fits all approach. This doesn’t mean you have count your macros each day, that you exercise your brains out, etc. It means that you do mostly good things for your body, but you also get to have FUN too! Sounds pretty good, right?!

You create positive habits, that take time to build (not overnight), but that help you choose healthier (notice I didn’t say ‘good or ‘bad’) snacks, live more actively, and so much more. Not only that, but it is a DYNAMIC BALANCE. You can’t eat 100% all of the time (or even most weeks). Life happens (and should happen) enjoy vacation and have one more margarita, because that is how life should be (and you shouldn’t feel bad about it).

Why does any of this even matter?

Because you are worth more than just one more diet try, that will ultimately fail you. If you don’t give up in the first week and actually end up losing weight… how often do you keep it off when you go back to life? (Here is a little secret… practically never). If you don’t create a life with habits that support a healthy life, you will never stay a healthy weight.

So, what does work… is a sustainable (key word… hint hint) lifestyle program that helps you develop habits that support heath, but also allow you to have FUN and ENJOY life. As you should.

We know you can’t do it on your own, but we have you covered. Let us know how we can help you today! We know it will be better than one more ‘diet’ try!

-Kensie Haden M.S., Pn1