In this article about five reasons why dieting doesn't work: You've tried a diet before. With good intentions, you start a new eating plan, but after a while, you throw in the towel and find yourself back at square one. Why are diets so hard to maintain? And why do they often result in a yo-yo effect or even more weight gain? We explain.
What is dieting, actually?
To clarify why dieting doesn't work, it's first important to define what we mean by dieting in this article. Nowadays, there are so many different diets and opinions about nutrition that clarity is in order. Here, we define dieting as: ‘a drastic (short-term) adjustment in calorie intake with the goal of losing weight’.
In recent years, ‘Sonja Bakkkeren’ and ‘Weight Watching’ have almost been elevated to verbs. Such a diet provides a framework, a guideline for how you can lose weight – in a short time. At first, it seems successful; the first weeks the pounds drop off quickly. But after a while, you hit a plateau, leading to frustration and demotivation. Why does that happen?
Five reasons why dieting doesn't work
To clarify why dieting is not the solution in our view, we explain five principles that explain the underlying issues with weight loss.
1. Dieting slows down your metabolism
Your metabolism is nothing more than your bodily processes. Even when your body is at rest, you consume energy to pump your heart, digest food, and eliminate waste. As a result of very low calorie intake, the metabolism slows down. This means your body burns less energy at rest, which can ultimately lead to a plateau in weight loss.
2. Dieting negatively affects your body composition
When your calorie intake is very limited during a diet, your body desperately tries to survive by making the metabolism more efficient. This happens, among other things, by storing food as fat to build a reserve for ‘even’ worse times. At the same time, the body reduces muscle mass (if you don't train), while this is precisely the engine of the body. Compare it to a car; the larger the engine, the more fuel it consumes. In other words, body composition can be negatively affected by dieting, increasing body fat percentage while decreasing muscle mass. In short, you may lose body weight, but you look worse in the mirror.
In this article, we share more about how strength training can help you lose weight.
3. Dieting creates deficiencies in the body
During a diet, the body usually receives too few valuable nutrients, creating deficiencies in your body. When you don't get enough vitamins and minerals, you are more likely to suffer from fatigue, colds, and the chance of getting sick increases. If you feel weak and lethargic, you become demotivated more quickly, and the likelihood of giving up your intentions is high. Recognizable?
4. Dieting disrupts your hormonal balance
If you consume a limited number of calories for a certain period, chronic stress can develop in the body. Your cortisol levels rise, which negatively affects hormonal balance. The consequences include insulin resistance (leading to increased fat storage), muscle breakdown, and a slowed metabolism. Moreover, cortisol is also known as the ‘hunger hormone’; it increases your appetite, causing you to make unhealthy choices more quickly when you experience stress. Thus, calorie restriction indirectly triggers processes in your body that disrupt balance and make weight loss more difficult.
5. Dieting does not address the root cause of the problem
A diet usually involves a drastic change in eating habits, leading to the avoidance of certain products and nutrients for a while. The fact is that this does not tackle the core of the problem; unhealthy (eating) habits persist. As a result, after the diet ends, people often revert to their old ways. This leads to regaining weight just as quickly, commonly known as the yo-yo effect.
Why dieting doesn't work
In short, a diet that focuses on a short-term calorie deficit without the right exercise actually triggers the wrong processes in your body. You create deficiencies in your body, your hormonal balance is disrupted, and your metabolism becomes confused. As a result, weight loss stagnates, you become frustrated, stop the diet, and regain weight. You are back to square one.
From unsustainable diets to a sustainable lifestyle
Diets may offer short-term results, but in the long run, they are ineffective. Our solution? Learning a healthy lifestyle that is achievable in the long term. You do this by exploring what your calorie needs are, which foods you can digest well, and how to create complete and healthy meals. Additionally, a healthy eating pattern is just one part of maintaining a healthy weight. Sufficient exercise and regular training are just as important if you want to lose weight, build muscle mass, or maintain your weight. Transitioning from an unsustainable diet to a sustainable lifestyle? Book a free trial lesson in Overveen or Heemstede; we are happy to help you.
References
Katan, M. (2008). What is Healthy? Myths & Facts about Nutrition. Bert Bakker Publishing, Amsterdam.
Personal Hormonal Profiling, Course Material, The Overload Worldwide.
Verburgh, K. (2012). The Food Sand Timer. Prometheus Publishing, Amsterdam.
