Top Reasons You’re Not Losing Weight: Diet Issues
Still staring at those jeans you want to fit back into?
Wondering how you are “eating healthy,” yet still not losing any weight?
Have you tried all sorts of diets, only to regain the weight, or even more?
You’re not alone. Nearly 65 percent of dieters return to their pre-dieting weight within three years.
So what’s happening here?
Let’s dive into the top reasons why you’re not seeing lasting results from your diet.
If we want to break this down into the simplest two reasons why you aren’t seeing lasting weight loss results, we can turn to the nutritional wizards over at Precision Nutrition.
They point out that if someone is over or underweight, tired and has lifestyle-related diseases, yet claims that they eat really well and have a good diet … well, while that is possible, it’s not likely.
It should logically follow that eating really well and having a good diet results in a healthy body and physique to show for it.
So, here’s the cold, hard truth my friends …
If you’re not seeing results, either:
Your plan sucks
or
Your plan is good, but you’re simply not executing it.
Of course there are hormonal or disease-related possibilities, but for most people these two reasons are it. Of course, this is in simplest of terms. Below I try to lay out the issues within each of these (a future article will provide some solutions so stay tuned).
Why might your diet plan suck?
1. YOU’RE MAKING IT TOO COMPLICATED (I.E. KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID)
Unless you are about to enter a fitness competition, have a photoshoot or are an athlete of some sort, it’s unlikely that you need to go on a very low carbohydrate diet, try carb cycling, do intermittent fasting or even count macros to see results.
These are definitely effective strategies that will produce results and are sometimes necessary to achieve specific results, but they also require a very high level of dedication and commitment.
Many people get excited about trying out these strategies in the beginning, but are often unable to stick to them, resort to old habits and become discouraged.
The truth is, the majority of people will see results simply by:
- Reducing the amount of processed foods that they eat
- Starting to increase the amount of whole foods they consume
- Focusing on eating protein-dense foods and lots of veggies with every meal
- Ensuring a balanced intake of healthy fats
- And developing an understanding of how many calories they’re consuming (versus expending with exercise).
Think about it. If you’re unable to stick to the nutritional basics 90% of the time, how do you expect you will handle meticulously weighing and tracking food, handling the mental and physical stress of adjusting to fasting techniques and low carb diets and so forth?
And finally, why the would you want to do all of that when you can begin to see results by keeping it simple?
2. YOUR DIET IS TOO RESTRICTIVE
- NO CARBS!
- NO FAT!
- NO SUGAR!
- NO ALCOHOL!
- NO FOOD!
FACT:
You MUST only eat chicken and broccoli and drink protein shakes until you reach your health and fitness goals.
And by fact, I mean … that’s super ridiculous and completely untrue.
Because well, you can see that there is no way in hell you’re going to end up sticking to that diet plan over the long-term.
Once we start labeling certain foods as good or bad, acceptable to eat and not acceptable to eat … we’re actually sabotaging ourselves in our goal of achieving results that last.
How your relationship is with food? Some good questions to contemplate are:
Are your food choices based out of fear (of getting fat or being unhealthy)?
Are there any foods that cause you anxiety at the thought of eating them? For example, when a bowl of chips are put down on the table, does it cause you unease within your body or mind?
It’s important to understand that there is a difference between choosing to not eat certain foods and avoiding those same foods out of fear that you’ll gain weight or that they’re not healthy enough.
While a slightly rocky relationship with food is no cause for alarm, if you think you might suffer from disordered eating, please seek help. The National Eating Disorders Association is a great place to start.
3. YOU’RE EATING TOO MANY “HEALTHY” PROCESSED FOODS
Are you buying and eat foods or snacks such as protein bars, recovery drinks or other healthy to-go snacks found in the grocery store or health food store?
You might be surprised that a lot of these are disguised as health food, yet in reality are very far from it.
There’s a whole industry out there that’s preying on your commitment toward making a positive change toward healthy eating. Companies label their products with words like low-fat, low-sugar, heart-healthy, whole grain, more protein … and so on. From Tea Toxes and Shakeology to the mantras of “all carbs are bad” and “always choose a low-fat option” … it can be very easy to get caught up in the latest storylines pushed by companies, “experts” and media.
For example, these protein bars…
Chocolate Almond Fudge CLIF Energy Bar:
22 grams of sugar per 68 grams .. looks like your energy is actually the result of a sugar-rush.
Ogranic & Vegan: Thumbs up!
15 grams of sugar: Oh shit … thumbs down!
Do you eat flavoured yogurt?
FAGE flavored raspberry yogurt has 16 grams of sugar per serving.
Don’t fall into the fat-free trap.
Most times, low-fat and fat-free means that there will be a butt load of sugar to make it taste good.
Also, stop being scared of eating fat.
And what about this “healthy” protein granola??
The second ingredient is SUGAR! There is 14g of sugar for just 1/2 cup serving.
Instead, this label should read NATURE VALLEY: Granola Sugar Peanut Butter.
So many times you may think you’re eating healthy, but you’re not. That’s why it’s important to check serving size, nutrtion labels, and the ingredient list on a food’s packaging.
Okay, now let’s assume that you have an amazing nutrition game plan laid out before you. But you’re having difficulty sticking to it.
Why are you not sticking to your nutrition plan?
1. THE COMPLETE DIET OVERHAUL
You have the perfect nutrition plan. One that’ll get you looking and feeling like a top performer. But it’s almost a complete 180 from what and how you were eating yesterday.
You’re attempting to change everything about your diet in one fowl swoop.
While it is possible to do this … behavioral science isn’t really on your side. Research has shown that by tackling one change at a time, the higher your chance of success is to maintain that habit over the long term.
Number of habits attempting to change to success rate:
Tackling 3 or more habits at a time: less than 5% success rate
Tackling 2 habits at a time: less than 35% success rate
Tackling 1 habit at a time: better than 80% success rate
Furthermore, when we want to change something about our diet, we all have different nutritional starting points.
Maybe your diet already limits the amount of processed foods you eat, and you have to work on nutrient timing or adding a little more protein to your meals.
Or maybe you currently eat ice cream every night after dinner and could reduce this by only eating ice cream 2 or 3 times per week (check out how our member Helen got results and ate her ice cream too!).
This is where a nutrition coach can be extremely helpful. A quality nutrition coach will be able to identify the habits you can change which will have the greatest impact for seeing results (and also provide you with strategies on how you can change that habit).
2. YOU’RE THE QUEEN OR KING OF EXCUSES
If you constantly fall back into old eating habits you might have taken up another bad habit: rationalizing poor eating choices.
This is a classic human defense mechanism. When we don’t stick with our nutritional plan (or any other commitment we’ve made to ourselves or others), we attempt to explain or justify our actions as necessary, acceptable or that we didn’t have a choice.
Scenario 1: Rationalizing your behavior to yourself.
You’re about to break your commitment to and resort to old habits.
You can either change your behavior or rationalize it by saying something like …
“It’s okay. I can eat this succulent piece of chocolate cake because I diiiiid kick ass in this morning’s HIIT class. That will offset the cake for sure.”
Here you’ve tried to come up with a “justifiable” or “logical” reason why you should eat the cake and not feel guilty (again, guilt should not be involved in your food relationship).
Scenario 2: Explaining away your behavior to others.
You’ve fell off track and resorted to old habits, and someone’s asking how your new nutrition plan is going.
“Well I had to work late, so I ordered pizza from Domino’s.”
“I was traveling over the weekend so I had to eat out a lot. It just wasn’t possible to follow my plan because of that.”
Here you’re turning voluntary decisions into involutionary ones. Of course these things DO happen and the good thing is that it’s okay. We have to remember that we’re human and we can always start with a clean slate and start making the choices now that we would have liked to make last time.
3. YOU’RE BRAIN AND BODY ARE WORKING AGAINST YOU
Can’t stop eating cookies, pizza, french fries, chips or some other form of deliciousness??? Well, there might be a reason for that beyond a simple “lack of willpower” or some other guilt-stricken feeling.
Highly processed foods can actually overthrow your brain’s “stop eating” signal. Our body’s hormonal system stimulates feelings of hunger, satiation (the feeling of fullness) and regulates our energy expenditure and consumption over the long-term.
When we eat a diet filled with highly processed foods (which are tasty and pleasurable, provide a physiological, feel-good effect and lack nutrients that our bodies need), this adds up to an eating experience that keeps us interested in eating more and more.
Of course, for the busy/tired/stressed employee, student or entrepreneur these foods are readily available for our consumption. And once we enter into these eating habits, the cycle can be very challenging to break.
To learn more about these processes, check here.
Whether your diet plan sucks or you’re having difficulty consistently following it, you’re not alone.
Here I’ve tried to lay out the top reasons why this might be the case, but how can you tackle and overcome these issues?
Part 2 of Top Reasons You’re Not Losing Weight: The Solutions is in the works, so stay tuned.
