Let’s face it, there’s an overwhelming amount of data out there surrounding diets, diet culture and what is ‘optimal’. It makes deciding on what diet to follow, extremely difficult and confusing. The definition of the word ‘diet’ itself, is just as confusing and often is too often only associated with weight loss goals.
Diet [noun]- ‘the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats.’
Diet [noun] - ‘a special course of food to which a person restricts themselves, either to lose weight or for medical reasons.’
Diet [verb]- ‘restrict oneself to small amounts or special kinds of food in order to lose weight.’
The best way to see a diet, is the habitual practice surrounding how you eat and what foods you do or don’t regularly consume. For example, I personally follow a vegan diet, meaning I chose to exclude all animal products from my diet. Now where it gets tricky and contradictory is when certain information sources start saying one diet is better than another and start to attack other diet choices for being ‘inferior’. Some argue a vegan diet is not optimal due to the lack of some of the nutrients you find in animal products and that it's harder to consume ‘complete’ protein sources. These same sources may promote diets that advise lean meats and dairy inclusion, but limit healthy carbohydrates intake or restrict consumption of fruit and vegetables due to ‘sugar content’. But fruit and vegetables are essential for vitamins and minerals?
It’s a minefield.
The honest truth, is any diet will work if it's used correctly for the goal it is intended. The most important thing is balance and this comes in the form of energy balance - calorie surplus, deficits or maintenance. If we look at diet from a fat or weight loss perspective, caloric deficit is the most important factor. The main strategy for weight loss, is eating less than you expend [burn] and creating an energy imbalance.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, those looking to gain weight or build muscle will need to be eating in surplus of what they are expending. Balance is also important in terms of eating a range of foods so as to get the nutrients our bodies require in order to function correctly.
Now that all sounds simple and easy enough, eat more or eat less and get a range of vitamins and minerals, what’s so hard about that…
Several things will throw a spanner into the works. Some will even have a negative or reverse effect of what you are aiming to achieve.
I’ll go through 5 of the most common below-
1.Failure to plan.
In both scenarios, not having a plan will limit your progress. Planning in the form of meal prep, accounting for days where you know you will be eating off plan [events, meals out etc], planning the foods you have in the cupboards for ease of access or having a proper plan of action when it comes to the diet duration.
2. Honesty. There’s that famous saying that those who lie, eventually get found out. If you're tracking food incorrectly or ‘conveniently’ missing out that extra biscuit you had at work, when Karen from marketing came round to offer them out, it all adds up. Be honest with yourself and your diet. If you're tracking calories/macros, include everything you consume so you can look at the end of the week and see why you may not be seeing the results you want. Also, be honest with yourself when it comes to setting nutrition goals:
-Are you ready to make the changes required? Are you in a position mentally, financially and personally to change your diet in such a way? -Is the diet choice you are opting for realistic? -From a health stand point, is the diet you are choosing suitable?
3.Under/Over estimating/ On any diet, a trap a lot of people fall into is under or over estimating how much/little they’re eating. I see it all the time; people think they’re in a deficit and in fact that one tbsp of peanut butter, turns out to be a mountain containing 5x the calories they thought they were eating [for the record, peanut butter is delicious and this is a slippery slope]. It’s really easy to go wrong if you're eyeballing portions and foods. When starting out, I’d recommend tracking/weighing things until you get an idea of what exactly a serving or amount should look like.
4. Believing it’s a one size fits all approach.
Diets are individual. Whilst people may follow the same sort of diet or have similar nutrition goals, it’s important to know that what works for one person, may not for another. You shouldn’t look at what one person claims to be eating on social media and think that that’s the way you need to approach your diet. Social media isn’t always honest, scientifically accurate and can lead to unhealthy habits around food.
5. Getting disheartened. When you put in a lot of effort and aren’t seeing results as quickly as you want, it’s easy to feel disappointed. Be persistent. There are a lot of different factors affecting things, such as hormones, stress, glycogen in the muscles and daily water retention that need to be accounted for. In the long run, consistency will have a far more positive outcome on results than quick fix / crash diets.
In conclusion, be mindful with what you’re consuming, both food and information. Don’t take everything you see online as gospel and make informed, intelligent decisions when it comes to your diet. Remember the key principles of energy balance depending on your goals and don’t be fooled by fad diets, products promising overnight fixes or anything that is labelled ‘detox/skinny/fat melting’. The only thing these things are good for, are wasting your money!
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