5 Common Reasons Diet Programs and Meal Replacements Often Fail
The diet industry capitalizes on making us believe that we need to shrink our bodies to feel worthy, be healthy or feel desirable. The worse you feel about yourself, the more likely you are to spend your money on diet after diet.
The reason it is such a profitable billion-dollar industry is that diets rarely work for long-term results. When one diet inevitably fails, there are hundreds more into which you can sink your cash into. The most consistent long-term result from these diet programs seem to be a sense of powerlessness and hopelessness in one’s own abilities to make change.
There’s an entire industry that profits from convincing people that they can lose weight with subpar products and over-the-top marketing that creates repeat customers, at the expense of the customer’s own wellbeing
Research suggests that if we follow a diet, initially it can provide a jumpstart to a change in eating, exercise and motivation. However, without focus on behavior change and self-efficacy, these results are usually fleeting. What these studies don’t show you is what happens to the participants’ weights in six months, one year or five years’ time. Any ensuing weight loss unfortunately is often short-term and comes at a cost. Studies that have looked at longer-term outcomes of dieting find the same thing you may have experienced if you’ve been on a diet – weight is regained back to pre-diet levels, if not more.
It’s hard to find the right diet when none of them work
Let’s take a closer look at nine reasons why so many weight loss programs fail:
Too restrictive and hard sustain for many people
While many may see initial changes in weight, fewer cravings and bloating perhaps, the truth is that many of these methods just are not sustainable for most of us, and oftentimes, once the program ends, so do the results, support and accountability that made the initial changes possible in the first place.
Restrictive eating can often exacerbate anxiety and a controlling relationship with food, which is not ideal for someone who may already have an unhealthy relationship with food. Not addressing these issues often leads to a worsened weight problem, not to mention micronutrient deficiencies that can occur with restricted foods and food groups.
There are plenty of sustainable ways to lose weight without the need for restrictive dieting and a multitude of ways to duplicate the support and accountability on your own terms. At the end of the day, nothing beats whole, fresh foods and when it comes to dieting, the best one for you is the one you can stick to.
Counting points, calories and macros doesn’t work for many
• While some may find these methods effective, the majority find tracking calories and counting points to be a nuisance. If compliance is low, then the effectiveness of the intervention is a moot point. In addition, counting calories takes on the assumption that all calories are equal, when in fact, the source of the calorie matters more than the caloric value of the food itself.
• Furthermore, the ‘calories in’ versus ‘calories out’ theory of weight loss has zero scientific merit. Although an initial caloric deficit can kickstart weight loss, being in a chronic caloric deficit will cause one’s metabolism to slow down (decrease in basal metabolic rate). When there are fewer calories and nutrients coming in, the metabolism slows down to meet demand and the body stores more than it burns to conserve energy.
This is precisely why most contestants on The Biggest Loser television show gained the weight back, plus more! Lastly, focusing solely on calories or macronutrients does not address the need for micronutrients, phytonutrients and foods that contain them.
EIGHT sources of hidden sugars in this ‘diet bar’ from a widely popular diet program, along with hydrogenated oils which the body doesn’t utilize or burn off easy. This might as well be a fat-gain bar, not a fat-loss bar, a it’s marketed to millions
Unhealthy & cheap ingredients
A. Fructose: it’s not always about the sugar
What most people don't know is that high levels of fructose can be insidiously worse for you than glucose. Table sugar is a combination of glucose and fructose in about an even ratio. Concentrated forms of fructose are concering, like high-fructose corn syrup(HCFS), fructose and agave. Fructose does not get digested the same way as glucose. Excess fructose goes straight to the liver and has more damaging effects than sugar.
While fructose does not raise glucose levels like sugar does, it does raise insulin, which tells your body to store calories, not burn them. Look out for any diet bars and shakes that contain fructose, which is erroneously marketed as low calorie. Remember that it doesn’t need to spike your sugar levels to spike your insulin and cause weight gain. Understand this fact so you can outsmart them and spend your money where it’s giving you the most benefit.
Too much fructose in the liver eventually creates a cascade of metabolic problems that include fatty liver disease, systemic inflammation, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.
B. Multiple sources of sugar, unhealthy fats & other chemicals
Be mindful of the many disguised forms of sugars on the labels of these products, such as fructose, dextrose, maltodextrin, polysaccharides, and anything with the words ‘starch’ or ‘syrup’ is code for sugar, as are ingredients ending in -ose.
Unhealthy fat like sunflower, palm kernel and other seed oils only get stored by your body because they’re too processed through heating that they are not recognizable and usable by the body to burn for energy. For this reason, the ubiquity of these oils in processed foods has had a big impact of obesity and heart disease.
Additives, emulsifiers, stabilizers, preservatives and ‘flavorings’ that are used to preserve appearance, taste and shelf-life, are not healthy.
Focusing mainly on weight loss, without addressing health simultaneously
Weight loss is a natural part of improved health and is NOT a separate process. Focusing on weight without addressing health, habits, one’s own relationship with food or creating behavior change simultaneously, should be a huge warning sign for people that the program is rarely sustainable when these other factors are not addressed.
Lack of emphasis or education on the importance of detoxication with weight loss:
Any weight loss program, diet, doctor or weight loss surgery that doesn’t discuss and emphasize the importance of detoxification, is a sign you’re wasting your time, effort and money. The reason this is important is that the majority of toxins in our bodies are stored in fat cells. When we lose fat, we liberate toxins, which have one of two fates: elimination or reabsorption.
Not having things like your gut health and detoxification pathways optimized, will not help the toxins that are broken down, to leave your body.
‘Re-toxification’ is a common reason people hit a ‘plateau’ or experience rebound weight gain.
Amidst all the bombardment of new diets and weight loss trends, it’s easy to get roped into one of these programs, believing the many claims they make.
In the end, if you truly want sustainable weight loss, choose a program that works to optimize health, metabolic fitness and address behavior modification.
If you’ve dieted with little success or experienced rebound weight gain, why not make it sustainable by getting metabolically fit and equipped with the right one-on-one guidance and support to finally make this a reality? Do it right and do it once!!
Tommy Markov is a Functional Nutrition Professional and Wellness Educator with a Master’s in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine. He specializes in healing the person, not the condition. He is passionate about uncovering the root cause of his client’s ailments and incorporating an integrative mind-body approach.
Tommy’s knowledge of the interconnectedness of body systems helps him identify imbalances before they manifest into dysfunction and disease, allowing for an effective preventative approach.
Tommy has been working in the health and fitness industry since his 20’s, ranging from health clubs, hospitals, medical practices to currently founding his own thriving practice, Living Wellness Solutions, after overcoming his own health challenges.
Tommy has appeared as a guest and expert speaker on numerous podcasts, speaking events, as well as being a nutrition and supplement consultant. Most recently, Tommy became a proud partner of F.L.O.W. Wellness Center in Abington, Pennsylvania, where he incorporates Functional Medicine and Nutrition along with various other healing modalities and practitioners.
