Everyone loves a good diet story. The promise of impending weight loss, or at least some direction about what to eat and what not to eat, makes perfect sense in a world where two thirds of Americans are officially overweight.
A common misconception is that diets are the key to sustainable weight loss. By definition, diets are temporary and unsustainable because they require you to restrict your calorie intake for only a short period of time. The truth is, lifestyle changes are more important than anything else when it comes to long-term weight maintenance. In this article, we’ll look at why diets don’t work and how you can focus on lifestyle changes instead!
Unfortunately, diets never work for most people. In the end it is better to stick with a basic set of rules that apply to everyone rather than try out 50 different diets that all claim to be amazing but which have no real evidence behind them.
In the 17th century lifestyle-related diseases had been unheard of until the wealthier Europeans started eating sugar from their colonies and more refined flour from which they made white bread instead of traditional brown breads. This new way of eating immediately brought an epidemic obesity rate worldwide as well as increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
People were suddenly dying from diseases that had not existed before and doctors tried to figure out what was going wrong. Since this new disease affected many different countries and cultures, it could not be a question of genetics since we all share the same genes, so it must have been environmental factors which changed in their diet. This is why scientists started studying populations which were unaffected by these changes in order to find the cause for this change in lifestyle related disease development.
Two famous studies are particularly worth mentioning here: one study on seven healthy male volunteers commissioned by the New York Academy of Medicine around 1918 found that when they lived on an almost exclusively meat-based diet with no added carbohydrates, sugar or dairy for nine days, they felt hungrier while developing gout, arthritic pain and significant weight loss.
Another study by the same author took place in 1928 when he lived with the isolated population of the natives of the Arctic whom are called Eskimos. He noticed that their blood samples had low cholesterol levels but after moving to New York where he was exposed to more westernized food, their cholesterol increased again which caused them health problems.
The conclusion from these studies is that dietary factors play an important role in our overall health.
Nowadays it is already common knowledge that both sugar and carbohydrates have a big impact on obesity so this should be avoided but there are still interesting things to study about how all kinds of fat affect our health since authorities still argue about which kind is best.
One very interesting fact is that naturally occurring trans fats may be beneficial for our health since they help the body use essential fatty acids and vitamin D, they lower Lp(a) concentrations and increase HDL-cholesterol levels. They also support nervous system function and immune regulation. On the other hand, artificially produced trans fats have very different effects: they lower ‘good’ HDL cholesterol while raising both total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol as well as triglycerides. A study from 2009 found a significant association between higher levels of blood markers of industrial trans fat intake with increased risk of memory problems as measured by memory tests taken during the course of an 8 year follow up period. In some cases these cognitive deficits were significant enough to raise the risk of dementia.
Another study from 2012 found that although total fat intake did not increase heart disease, trans fats increased the risk while polyunsaturated fats decreased it. Of course, sticking to a healthy lifestyle and eating less processed food can have a huge positive effect on our health but based on all the research done so far it is clearly not just about avoiding fat completely but rather about which kind of fat we eat instead. People who keep their weight in check and do not eat too much sugar or carbohydrates have definitely nothing to worry about when eating natural, unsaturated fats since these are beneficial for us while artificial trans-fats make matters worse.
In summary: Diets are Dead – Diets never work for most people because they restrict what you can eat so much that people cannot stick to them in the long run. A good example for this is a study from 2015 which shows that only 1 out of 236 overweight individuals who were put on a mandatory, very restrictive diet with extremely low calorie intake per day managed to maintain their weight loss after 5 years. In most cases, the result was even worse since obese individuals had gained an average of 17 lbs more compared to those who didn’t follow any diets at all during this time period.
It seems like people are better off not trying to lose weight with diets but rather sticking to a healthy lifestyle instead since it has been shown many times over that this approach yields superior results where real, sustainable changes can be made and for a lifetime.
It might sound really counter-intuitive but the best way might be to eat healthy carbs(mind the source, please! – more fruits, less prepacked sources!), healthy fats, and dairy if you are trying to lose weight since these foods make you feel full for longer which makes it easier not to overeat. Our body has a very effective mechanism of controlling our appetite so don’t bother counting calories at all – that is completely useless!
The basic rules for eating right are:
- Avoid overly processed foods. Even though they might be low in calories their abundance of sugars/carbs will definitely lead to weight gain over time
2. Eat around 2 lbs of leafy greens per week. This includes kale, spinach, lettuce etc. with almost no exceptions because most vegetables have a very low caloric density so eat as much as you want
3. Fats from cheese, eggs, fish and meat are healthy but make sure to eat those from grass-fed animals as these contain way more omega-3 fatty acids than the others. And do not forget healthy vegetable fats – Olive oil typical for Meidterranean diet, and avocado or avocado oil.
4. Eat whole fruits instead of juices since they have a lower glycemic index.
5. Stick to unrefined foods like brown rice instead of refined versions like white rice or pasta. The former has fiber which makes you feel fuller for longer whereas the latter will spike your blood sugar levels and leave you hungry again after just 1-2 hours
Although this approach might seem complicated at first because lots of counting is needed, it actually isn’t that difficult once you get used to it. For example, if someone eats 2 lbs of leafy greens per week then this would amount to around 6 cups – this can be easily measured with a kitchen scale.
Bottom line: Diets are not sustainable since they make you feel like you aren’t allowed to eat certain types of food anymore which makes it virtually impossible for most people to stick to them in the long run. If weight loss is really important for you then eating healthy and avoiding overly processed foods will help your body control its appetite by itself without having to count calories or restrict an entire food group which makes it much easier not to give up after just 1-2 weeks!
We hope this post was both informative and helpful; we certainly had fun writing it (it probably shows). 🙂 Please feel free to share it with people you care about and want to know more about health.
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