This time of year the mind begins to gloss over the excess
that is Christmas and start to think about what we plan to do for the New
Year. For many of us it will be the
traditional time to fail at the diet New Year resolution. Every year you believe the same thing ...”This
year will be different!”...and every year you fail to make that a reality.
Today we will look at common reasons why I believe most
people fail at losing bodyfat. From there we will start to think of ways you can
combat those issues.
Issues that will encourage failure
The first of the many mistakes is creating that ‘perfect
diet plan’. You know the one where every
bit of food is perfect and every possible source of enjoyable food is
removed. Yes, living on 800Kcal a day
will make you lose fat faster, however disaster looms.
Secondly is the fact
that suddenly cutting your calories massively causes the metabolic rate to
crash. This will means that you will suddenly feel tired, your levels of leptin
(the ‘full-up’ hormone) will drop, and the level s of ghrelin (the hunger
hormone) will rise. You will be more likely to binge as these
hormones will drive you towards feasting.
Thirdly dropping calories too fast means you will lose a
lot of muscle mass as well as fat. The
more severe the diet, the more muscle mass will be lost along with the
fat. This is very bad as the amount of
calories you need are actually partly decided by how much muscle mass you
carry. If you carry 35% muscle mass
before a severe cut , then that drops by 5% or more, your need for calories
drops dramatically as well, so keeping that weight off becomes even harder the
more muscle mass you lose!
The fourth thing people often do is that they equate
suffering with success. This is wrong on several counts. Firstly you can only
lose fat without excessive muscle loss at a rate of about 1-2lb a week. If you are very fat you can do more at the
start, but for people needing to lose only a little, 1-2lbs per week seems the
best rate that will help maintain the most muscle mass, while the fat
disappears. Also suffering can work for
a few days, possibly a few weeks, but no one thrives while suffering
deprivation. You are constantly tempted
by foods and you are always feeling tired, rundown. You also miss out on social events that focus
around food like meals out and family celebrations.
Fifth, we reach willpower.
Willpower is not an endless bucket of strength. Nor do you have a set amount of willpower for
one thing and not for another. Rather
like stress you will find that you have a certain ‘bucket’ full of willpower
and this can get used up over the course of a day. To do your morning exercise will use up some
of your willpower allowance, to eat that healthy meal will take some more, to
do that DIY you planned to finish will take still more. Adding to that severe, ongoing deprivation of
food will probably mean your training and other activities that also take
willpower may fail to be accomplished as time goes on. In the end these failures may lead to a worse
outcome than a more moderate diet plan that continues the exercise and other
recovery plans you have in place.
Many people actually just want bragging rights not to
achieve a maintainable physique. They
are more impressed with “Look at my 30 day transformation”, than with “I made
gradual changes in my diet over many months.
I managed to lose the weight and keep it off for several years”. People are naturally drawn towards the
adverts that claim “2 inch bicep gain in 2 weeks”, or “Lose 20lbs in 20 days”. What they are really saying is that they do
not want to make lifestyle changes. They
want to eat the same foods that caused the weight gain, the same way they
always ate them...and yet lose the fat they have accumulated over the
years. Does that sound feasible to you? Real bragging rights should go to the people
who have kept the fat off themselves. Maintaining
a physique with a lower fat level than you are used to is harder than just
crash dieting and reaching a ‘goal weight’, then going back to eating how you did
before. The real goal should be time a lower
fat level is maintained for, not how quickly you achieved a low fat level
(followed by how quickly you piled it back on again!).
The next thing we will look at is the idea that ‘optimal’ is
best. This is counter intuitive, but optimal is NOT best, ‘doable’ is
best. Let me use an example. Let’s say ideally you should have a strategic
refeed (you can call it a ‘cheat meal’, but I prefer the word ‘refeed’), but
suppose you have an invitation for a fantastic adventure out after you have had
your refeed? Now suppose this adventure
only had the option of eating less than perfect food choices. I would say “Grab the adventure!”. Another
option may be that ideally you would eat broccoli and tofu many times a week,
but in all honest you do not desire that option at all. I would suggest that
having some variety will get you to decent fat levels a little more slowly, but
will make the journey that much more enjoyable. I would possibly go one step
further. For most people living on
ultra-strict dietary guidelines that never waver is impossible, but making
smaller, less draconian dietary choices will still allow you to reach your
fat-loss goals without the added stress.
It will be slightly slower, but you have the added advantage of learning
new recipes you can use once you have reached your fat-loss goals.
The next issue you have to overcome is related to the optimal
Vs doable argument. It is the “Hot and cold effect”. This is when you start a
project you are super-motivated, so you really do believe you can eat that tofu
and broccoli daily. What you fail to
realise is you must be able to empathise with how you will feel after that
initial enthusiasm fades. Being able to see how you will fare after the first
week, or first few months is something you have to learn if you want to design
a successful diet programme. Remember,
you are all about creating a real lifestyle change, not about having two weeks
being super-strict then going back to your old eating lifestyle. If you can clearly visualise yourself
(honestly) keeping to a plan over weeks, months and even years, then you will
go a long way to achieving your goals
The last point I will bring up on this post is the use of positive
associations when talking about things.
Saying “I eat plants.” is a better choice of words than the negative
association involved in the phrase “I do not eat animal products.”. Defining
yourself by using negative associations has been shown to lessen your chances
of success. The same goes for your fat
loss goals. “I think I will eat mainly healthy food today.” Will work better
than, “I will NOT eat that unhealthy option for lunch today”. The latter means
you will end up thinking of the unhealthy option you are determined not to eat
for lunch all morning, and possibly regretting it all afternoon? Whereas, if you think about the healthy food
options all morning, you will more than likely eat them and have no regrets later.
What can be done?
My suggestions are to take small steps towards your
goals. Slowly increase the amount of
healthy, wholefoods in your diet. Allow
once or twice a week to eat somewhat less than perfect food (see the
80:20 diet
for a few more tips on that). Remember
you are learning a new way to eat so take things slowly and make any changes
enjoyable. This also leaves you a long time over which to make changes, so if
you stall simply add in the next small change.
If you make every change at once, where do you go from there if your
fat-loss stalls?
Remember weight training becomes especially important if you
are losing weight as any muscle lost not only makes you look slacker, but it
also lowers your metabolism which needs to be as high as possible. We will look into that more later, but for
now, enjoy the holidays, but pop back to this when you begin to plan your diet
for the New Year. You can look vastly
better by next summertime if you plan carefully, do not try to do too much, too
soon and gradually move towards your goal over time.
Any comments add them below and do not be afraid to ask
questions. I included some further reading that you might find interesting below.
Further reading
