So Many Diets! But What to choose?

I don’t know about you but it feels like a new diet pops up every single week?

I swear you’ve got folks just making these diets up. I’m sure someones brain is ticking as I write this… “oh I know Lemons are low in calories, lets create a lemon only diet!”. It’s bloody comical. In an ever growing obese society people are constantly on the hunt for the quickest fix, and to be honest who can blame them? If your insecure about how your body looks or you have a serious medical condition due to your weight then who wouldn’t want to escape or mitigate that situation as rapidly as possible?

What do all successful diets have in common?

The truth is far from fancy, there’s no magical ingredient or potion which enigmatically burns fat from problematic areas. No the real truth is incredibly straight forward…. “create a calorie deficit”. Let me repeat that… “create a calorie deficit“… that’s is all that needs to be done to lose weight.

The truth is so bloody simple but people don’t like straight forward answers.  Simple solutions either sound to good to be true or people feel embarrassed, especially when they’ve spent a small fortune buying fancy diet products! All that is needed is a calorie deficit!

If every obese person in the world created a calorie deficit for a couple of months they would lose a sh*t load of weight and that’s a fact. Whether eating pizza, burgers, chocolate or whether eating lettuce, fruit and fish – as long as you are in a calorie deficit you will lose weight. I’m prepared to bet everything i’ve got on it!

How Fat Loss Works…

When your body has insufficient calories it has no choice but to tap into stored fuel.  The energy it taps into could be fat, protein or carbohydrates. In a nutshell…

• Calorie deficit = Weight loss
• Calorie surplus = Weight Gain

Why Mainstream Diets don’t work…

The issue with diet fads is that they typically over restrict i.e. let’s take The Atkins Diet, which is a diet high in fat and protein. This diet works on the basis of removing carbohydrates. That means eliminating all of these foods: pasta, bread, rice, sweets, chocolate, pizza – and a whole load more! The diet typically works because your removing a food group, which means your probably going to eat less calories. It’s not the Atkins diet that works it’s the deficit!

A deficit leads to fat loss. Now if you can 100% go through your life without eating carbs then go for it! The truth is most of these faddy diets are too restrictive and can create poor relationships with food. I’ve been there and done that, you follow a plan for 4 weeks (your will power has been shot to bits!) and then you go on an epic 2 week binge bender (gaining all your weight back!). It sucks total balls!

Mainstream diets do work (providing your in a deficit!), however they are always short term solutions. Inevitably there will come a point where a more sustainable strategy needs to be implemented, otherwise old habits typically work there way back in. Before you know it you’ve pilled on the pounds again!

Why You Can Get Fat on Healthy Food…

Can you get fat of eating fruit, fish, meat and vegetables? Yes, 100% you can! If you over eat on calories you will gain weight. Whether that’s junk food or healthy food it doesn’t matter you will gain weight as your in a calorie surplus. As i’ve said it always comes down to calories in – calories out. That said it’s very difficult to over eat on healthy foods as they typically give you more bang for your buck.

Have you ever tried over eating chicken and vegetables? It’s near enough impossible as these foods are filling and satiate the body. In comparison, try over eating pizza (or a food you love) and it’s pretty damn easy. This is why nutritious foods are more beneficial and where they saying “eat more food and lose more weight” comes from.

• 100g of Dairy Milk Chocolate = 533 calories
• 100g of Chicken = 239 calories

So you could pretty much it twice as much chicken for what you would get in only 100g of chocolate. That’s why it’s wiser to pick more of these ‘bang for your buck foods’ when on a diet – they go much further.

Nutrient Quality

Yes you can lose weight by eating ice cream! But these junk foods contain very little nutrients for the body. Foods like fruit, vegetables, meat and fish provide the body with far more essential nutrients: fibre, protein, vitamins and minerals. Typically I advise a diet that makes up at least 70-80% of these nutritious foods.

What really makes a successful diet? 

A truly successful diet is one that works long term. You can use short term solutions for periods of time, but ‘he/she who wins is the one that can stay in a chloric deficit the longest‘. Ask yourself this… can you maintain the diet in 6 months time? If the answer is no, you either need to ditch it! or figure out a more suitable plan in the long run.

In my opinion IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macro’s) is the best long term strategy and you can find out all about this in this post I put together for you – IIFYM – A VERY SUSTAINABLE & EFFECTIVE WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT…

Nick ‘Ditch the Diet’ Screetoni