Transform Your Life (Part 1 - Diets Don't Work)

It’s not easy to eat less food. It’s not easy to make a lifestyle change. It’s not easy to accept diets don’t work. With this multi-part blog series I’m going to share some historical data and ways to enact healthy changes in your life without yo-yo dieting.

Why Diets Don’t Work

I recently watched an episode of the ‘Explained’ series on Netflix titled ‘Why Diets Fail’.

My quick takeaways:

Obesity rates have increased dramatically in the last 50 years even tho our genetics haven’t changed
Weight Loss program choices have increased by orders of magnitude
A controlled study involving participants following two different diets (Low Fat vs. Low Carb) yielded the same results
The Biggest Loser TV show’s average contestant lost 130 lbs and gained 2/3 of it back within 6 years
Physical activity is essential for healthy heart, lungs and brain function
There is no amount of physical activity that can burn off a bad diet
No diet will keep weight off long term, only lifestyle changes will do that

A Modern Problem

Interesting data from 2021 World Obesity:

Over the last 50 years access to cheap calories and low cost food has increased drastically creating a worldwide problem. Nearly every country on the planet has at least 1 in 4 citizens in the ‘Obese’ category (> 30% BMI). One of my former blogs discussed BMI as being a very simplistic metric, but in this case it’s more than good enough to illustrate the overall problem that has developed over time.

Bottom Line:

Many diets focus on counting calories, but long term you should not need to count calories. Instead of dieting to lose weight, focus on building healthy habits and making lifestyle changes that are sustainable. How you eat shouldn’t be thought of as a diet, instead it should just be how you eat.

It’s impossible to avoid success with a consciously crafted and committed lifestyle. The goal isn’t the weight loss itself, the goal is developing healthy habits that lead to long term weight control.

Stay tuned …. More to come in Part 2!

“Eat fruits and vegetables, don’t eat too much junk food, balance caloric intake with activity you can take part in and stay away from processed foods as much as is possible.”
– Netflix ‘Why Diets Fail’