How Most Stupid Diets Work.

They'll tell you that it's not your fault. It's the food industry, the government, or the pharmaceutical companies. "Follow the money", "join the rebels", and "take control of your body"! Again, it's not that you're lazy or misinformed, so come to the other side and do something different.

But are you really doing something different?  Something that will make an impact for your fat loss struggles?    

Gurus will argue that going on a "diet" or counting calories don't work. Then they'll persuade you with 3 easy tricks to quick and painless (and permanent) weight loss. Usually done with pseudoscience and marketing terms to sound credible or use a celebrity athlete or M.D. to sponsor their product/services.

They'll use industry buzzwords like "Toxins", "Functional Training", "#1 Fat Blocking Hormones", "Muscle Confusion", "Long Lean Muscle", "Holistic/Alternative Approach", "Clean Eating" or something generic like "Everything in moderation" or "don't diet, it's a lifestyle change" bullshit.

They'll convince you that surplus caloric intake is not the reason why you gained weight and that eating less is not the solution. Instead, they want you to eat by their rules, swallow their pills, use their blenders, buy their books, drink their shakes, and join their 21 days challenge with 3 easy payments.

Basically, they'll have you believe that tracking food intake is too complicated and it only works for bodybuilders and models who are body obsessed. You're a regular Joe that needs practical solutions because your'e too busy to cook, to track, or to train consistently.

Then with whatever trick they propose, whether it be eating 1x/day or 12x/day, wear this patch or chew that gum, eat more 'super foods' or buy all organic 'health' foods, and eat like jesus, these tricks will still somehow trick you into eating less (calories).

The problem with this is not only that you're dumber than before and already wasted a massive amount of resources (money, time, and energy) but the result is not sustainable because you're always having to give up something (or buy more of something). When you fall, and you will, (everybody fall off diets, it's only a matter of time) you'll blame yourself for lack of discipline/willpower even though the diet is set up to fail YOU.

This is not the case for those who budget their food intakes (at least initially to learn about food content for a couple weeks). In the process of preparing their food to meet their goal, they'll learn better methods of eyeballing food portions, actually COOK for themselves (instead of packaged meals), and make choices like a adult, what foods are worth the pleasure to consume for the calories it contain and at what quantity or frequency to consume at.

The only "diet" that works is the one you can follow long term.  This means it has to be enjoyable, flexible, and actually meet the goal.  A diet that is quantifiable in energy input and output so you can actually reflect against your progress and downfalls and learn from it instead of believing XYZ foods are off limit and feel defeated when you eat them.

If you're fat, understand that you'll have to go through a phase of caloric restriction and sometimes that involves feeling hungry, saying no to happy hours, or just generally not able to eat at the quantity/frequency of the caloric dense foods you wish to have all the time.

However, once you reach your ideal weight, you can slowly transition to eating at or near maintenance. By that time you'll know how it feels to be eating less, you'll have learned the skills/mindset on how to consistently not over indulge and exactly what needs to be done when you do feel chunky again. You know how to MAINTAIN which no commercial diets ever address.

A diet that works long term is a diet that doesn't make you feel like a failure when you fall every time.  Remove the negative emotional attachment to foods that make you feel guilty after consuming them. This can only be achieved if you see food as fuel and make adjustments as you go. That's the way to have good relationship with your diet while still meet the goal of 'eating less'.

By seeing food as fuels and knowing exactly why you are doing the things you're doing, then it wouldn't take another new year resolution or bikini season to get you back on the wagon again when you did end up overeating.

If you can start to see foods from a scientists point of view that they are quantifiable things, like calories (energy from your belly fat), and levels of satiation you feel from eating them, then you'd be able to more objectively make plans to eat for fullness, eat while not feel guilty, and eat to lose fat for the last time.