You hear a story of someone who lost 10 kgs and you jump to follow their diet. Do you do any research on what their diet really comprised? What their body tendencies really are like and do you wait to see what their body goes through once the crash diet is over? Not really, right? And that’s precisely why your diet must be failing you. Aping diets of others or adopting those you’ve seen on an Instagram post is the worst idea ever. Ultimately, it boils down to one thing. It is not important how you look in a dress, what matters is how you look in your skin. Weight is just a number; it is the overall fitness level that counts more.
We hear people talking about dieting and we become followers, unaware of the fact that we are doing ourselves more harm than good. According to Dr. David Ludwig, a nutritionist from Harvard, many diets are destined to fail because of its lack of fat in it. Yes, you read right, the “F” word you tried to avoid for so many months diligently!
Let’s look at the common reasons why our diets let us down and how to do it right.
1. You can’t starve yourself to size zero:
Sorry but your big sacrifices are going to yield no benefit, face it. Our hunger pattern is controlled by our brain and not the stomach. When we cut down on carbohydrates and fats, we are actually throwing our brains into a “rebel mode” which then responds by releasing cortisol, a stress hormone resulting in weight gain. Our brain has a sense of what the “normal” weight for each of our body’s is and it will struggle to maintain this equilibrium, regardless of your hardest struggle.
Losing weight is comprehended as starvation and the brain reacts by regaining it through increased hunger or lowering metabolism. When the body gets less food, it starts burning the stored fat and the muscles. This also leads to slower metabolic rate thus resulting in more fat getting accumulated over time. A vicious circle, indeed!
2. Eating when you are not hungry:
It is completely fine to indulge in cravings once a while. It is not the “WHAT” you eat, but the “WHEN” that leads to problems. Eating or snacking when you are not hungry tends to build calories which your body stores for future as fat layers. Eating a low carbohydrate and high fat (LCHF) diet is a good way to let your body to use its fat reserves. In fact, eating a high fat diet produces a feeling of longer-lasting satiety than a regime packed with carbohydrates.
3. Controlled eating:
As opposed to intuitive eaters, controlled eaters are more vulnerable to food cravings and respond to food ads or unlimited buffets by binge eating or overeating. They are those people who don’t hear their body and limit themselves to diet charts and plans the rest of the time. This kind of limiting becomes tiresome after a point and they give in to their desires after a while only to start again the next day. This kind of yo-yo dieting leads to a series of ups and downs in the weight pattern. Controlled eaters try to compensate for the gained calories by starving the next day. This is totally unhealthy and is worse than eating a few extra calories every day and then burning them off.
4. Obsessed Dieting:
Losing weight is important, agreed, but how much are we letting the idea control us? Too much obsession over anything can prove to be fatal. One can use the Harris Benedict formula to calculate one’s average calorie need but one shouldn’t overdo it and measure everything that is consumed. Remember that you are a human and not a machine. If you’re hungry, eat something nutritious. Your brain knows your bodily needs better than Harris Benedict, right?!
5. Weight and Hormonal imbalance:
Weight gain doesn’t always point at binge eating or a wrong diet pattern. The sudden weight gain might also point to some kind of hormonal imbalance. It is always advisable to first get your hormones checked before deciding to diet. Over secretion of leptin, cortisol, estrogen and testosterone are reasons enough to increase your body weight. Dieting is not a solution in such cases. It would instead worsen the body condition further.
6. Compensating Diets:
This is a very common situation among controlled dieters especially in India. We have so many festivals and occasions to celebrate and sweets to resist that we tend to give in at the most inopportune moments. The consolation we usually give is “It is just for today”. We promise ourselves to punish ourselves doubly next day which is a very unwise strategy. If one doesn’t over-control one’s impulses, it’s very easy to take a few bites of a sweet periodically and not be doused with guilt over it.
7. Lack of Planning:
A weight loss program requires lots of research and planning. A person must know what works best for him/her rather than following irrelevant and pointless procedures which might not help. A careful, well-strategized plan involving healthy eating patterns and a steady transition with regular evaluations is necessary.
8. Yo-Yo Dieting:
A term coined by Dr.Kelly D.Brownell, an expert on weight gain and obesity, yo-yo dieting refers to the up-down motion of the cycle of weight gain and loss of the dieter. One tends to adopt a difficult diet regime and drop it midway for lack of motivation or drive and then after gaining back a few kilos, the dieter goes back to the same diet plan again. This happens over and over leading to depression and fatigue. Ultimately, the dieter withdraws from the regime and gains back the lost weight. This constant fluctuation in the body weight is extremely harmful to one’s body, organs and hormones and must be avoided carefully.
9. Pregnancy and Diet:
Women who wish to lose their post-pregnancy fat must definitely avoid crash diets. All it takes is a little patience and the extra flab goes away on its own. The body needs its own time to get back from high hormone levels to normal levels. According to Dr. Melinda Johnson, a dietician, and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, a more gradual weight loss program is necessary for a mother post pregnancy. It takes the body 9 months to reach a higher weight level and it deserves an equivalent time period to get back to normal. There are better things to worry about post pregnancy. If it still concerns you, try breastfeeding or yoga.
10. Bad Lifestyle:
Most of us live in a highly competitive, stressful and hectic environment with absolutely no scope for exercise and healthy food patterns. We eat junk food, caffeine, skip food for meetings, and eat food that is low in nutrition and high in sugar to satiate our hunger pangs. Such an environment is not ideal for dieting and there is absolutely no scope for it to succeed. What people need more than a diet is a changed environment and lifestyle.
Ultimately, it boils down to one thing. It is not important how you look in a dress, what matters is how you look in your skin. Weight is just a number; it is the overall fitness level that counts more.
♥ Further Reads: Fitness Tips by Sunny Leone
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