Why Most Diets Don't Work
Wanting to lose weight? We hear it all the time: "Diets don't work!" That's because most diets CAN'T work!
Here’s what you need to know before you choose THE Diet and how to make sure yours works for YOU!!!
If you'd rather read than watch, the transcript is below the video!
And if you don't mind me sounding a little like Minnie Mouse, you can speed up the video by clicking the gear icon lower right!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaoRrYuDa1A
THE TRANSCRIPT:
The FIRST THING to KNOW
You need an eating plan you can live with for the long term. Forever. If you lose weight then go back to your old way of eating, you’ll go back to your old way of looking and feeling. There is no way around this factoid.
I like getting the bad news out of the way.
You can lose weight on any diet: grapefruit diet, low calorie, low fat, fasting 1+ day(s)/week, IF (Intermittent Fasting), keto, WW, Atkins, Jenny Craig... LOSING weight is relatively easy. It's the KEEPING it off, it's the LIVING with your lifestyle diet FOREVER... this is where the rubber meets the road.
So you need a diet you can live with. I was keto for 3 years. I LOVED it for 6 months, then got sick of it. Too much fat, too restrictive and no fun… after 3 years and the longest plateau in history, I finally admitted defeat.
There are, of course, some people on keto for many, many years, but they usually have a driving factor that keeps them extremely motivated, like bodybuilders, cancer survivors or someone battling a serious illness. Keto can be very therapeutic. [More on keto @ #4 below.]
The BOTTOM LINE on Weight Loss
To lose weight, no matter your method, you ultimately must eat fewer calories than you burn.
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple or else weight loss wouldn’t be a billion dollar business!!! If all we had to do was cut calories, nobody would have a weight problem, right?
You see, there are significant X factors involved in losing weight, then MAINTAINING a healthy one. These include mitochondrial health (your mitochondria house the little engines that burn fat), toxic load, emotional health, stress management strategies, gut health (are you getting the nutrients from your food?) and physical fitness.
Diets usually fail because
1) When you go too low calorie for too long, your body starts storing fat. This doesn’t happen overnight like we used to believe (the Desert Island theory), but it does eventually happen IF you have not addressed the X factors, are not eating healthy, clean, nutrient dense foods, and are not exercising. You won't see the fat for a long time but it will be in your organs and around your muscles: "skinny fat". Calorie quality matters.
2) Unless you balance your blood sugar and hormones, you'll get sick of being hungry/hangry all the time and fall off the wagon. This is critical to your success and there’s no way to lose weight and keep it off without addressing this.
3) You gotta detox on any diet. Your body stores toxins in fat in order to protect you from those toxins. If you lose weight without detox (and I mean a full body blood/organ cleanse, including heavy metal chelation, not just a colon cleanse), your body will eventually start storing fat again to encase those toxins.
4) Calories are not important on keto/Atkins... AT FIRST. But over time your body will adjust and you must start cutting calories or you will stop losing and start gaining. Did you know that your body can turn anything into glucose? Even fat. Keto stops being keto when your body starts making glucose out of steak and bleu cheese dressing. Keto is way more than just bacon and eggs 24/7, it’s a science. You want to go keto? Follow Luis and Tyler at Ketogains on Facebook (along with several other experts who lurk there) or on their website and study up. (I was also not motivated enough to start counting macros to keep my keto diet effective.)
5) To stay lean, you eventually need to build muscle. Muscles burn fat for fuel and you lose muscle at an alarming rate as you age. You don’t need a lot of exercise, you don’t need to be a beast, but you need to at least stay even with the aging factor. This will be different for every body. After owning a fitness biz for 17 years, I know lots of options and can help you navigate this. Hal and I want to be STRONG and healthy so we workout 3x a week, either at home or the gym. Sometimes both.
I’ve done every diet above and then some… Most of them won’t work long term because they don’t address blood sugar. The others I just didn’t stick with because it was no fun. I’m seeing a pattern here, lol.
For now, I’ve detoxed, worked on the X factors (still working… that is ongoing), building strength and found my lifestyle diet. I practice IF (Intermittent Fasting) and still enjoy my low-caf “skinny coffee” most days.
What I appreciate MOST about my diet is that I don’t have to think about it anymore. I've got a formula, I eat clean, I eat when I’m hungry (and I’m not hungry like I used to be!!!), I’m aware of emotional eating and know how to calm the beast, I’m at my goal weight and I FEEL GREAT.
I’m officially READY for that new grand boy!!! Since I plan to dance at their weddings, I’ll be keeping up with this HEALTHY lifestyle! There is no other option.
If you want to lose weight and want lifestyle choices that WORK for YOU, I'd love to help you figure that out!