Why Do Most Diets Fail?
Sometimes, though, a diet seems successful: you follow the plan for a set period of time, you reach a goal weight, you fit back into those jeans. But then, just when you think you can relax, the diet fails. How? You put back on all that weight you lost.
How many diets fail?
The picture, unfortunately, isn't good: estimates of the number of diets which fail is typically given as about 95% (the most conservative estimates put it at about 80%). "Failure" means that a dieter successfully lost weight, but didn't manage to keep it off for as long as a year. Some reports suggest that only 1% of dieters manage to lose weight permanently.
Some types of diets are more likely to result in long-term failure than others - particularly strict plans that involve eating under 800 calories per day (known as Very Low Calorie diets) and diets which change eating patterns radically (replacing meals with milkshakes or cereal bars).
Why do diets fail?
The most common reasons why diets fail to result in long-term weight loss are:
- The dieter followed a plan which didn't help to re-educate his/her eating habits
- The dieter ate well below the minimum calorie guidelines during the diet
What's your reaction when you reach a milestone or goal and finish your diet? Do you go back to "eating normally"? The problem here is that, for most of us, our normal pattern of eating is what resulted in our weight gain in the first place ...
What are the problems with a failed attempt to diet?
There are two key reasons why a failed diet is bad for you. The first is psychological; it's very demoralizing to put in a lot of effort, successfully lose weight, then undo all that hard work. If you felt elated and proud at achieving your weight loss goal, you're likely to feel disappointed or even angry with yourself for allowing it to slip away again.
The second reason is that "yo-yo dieting" is bad for your body. Any benefits from the weight loss are negated by piling the pounds back on ... and this can make it harder to lose the weight again in future. Some people gain back more weight than they lost, putting themselves in an even worse position.
What sort of diets don't fail?
If you want your weight loss to be for good, not just until you're back from holiday or the wedding's over with, then follow a diet plan with the following features:
- Your diet should consist of balanced, nutritious meals - not endless bowls of cereal or soup, or "meal replacements" such as shakes or bars.
- Your diet should be made up of foods which you like and which you would eat even if you weren't on a diet
- Your diet should re-educate your eating habits. For example, you might learn to cook with a little spray oil rather than tablespoons of oil.
- You should be exercising as well as dieting: getting active helps you to burn off fat, but the muscle you build will use more calories even when you're at rest.
Over to you ... have you managed to lose weight in the past, only to pile it back on? What are you doing to make sure you succeed - long-term - with your diet?
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Created / Updated: November 15, 2011
It is extremely frustrating to gain back weight after you have achieved some success and started to feel like this time is for real, especially when you have worked really hard to get your new body.
ReplyI spoke with my nutritionist, and she advised me not to get too excited right after losing some weight for this exact reason.
I started eating a lot of healthy green foods, and i came across a helpful list of
Five Leafy Greens to Love. They're very healthy and also tasty, and every time I feel like eating, I make myself a nice leafy salad to help me survive until my next bout of hunger.
In the past I have used the endless bowl of cereal/ shakes diets and they didn't work at all. Now I've been eating stuff I'd eat anyway the difference is that exercise is part of my life for good and so is self-control when it comes to portions. I also took the time to look back and find out why my 10 attempts to lose weight failed Awesome article Ali!!!
ReplyPeople who gain the weight back after dieting are almost ENTIRELY people who are not weight training.
Sorry folks, if you aren't lifting weights and increasing your muscle mass you are way more likely to gain the weight back.
Not to mention that people who don't weight train follow idiotic dieting protocols wherein they lose muscle mass, further depressing their metabolism and increasing the liklihood of gaining back the weight.
Besides, who the hell wants to be a cardio bunny? I feel sorry for all the hampsters I see at my gym spending hours in such a monotonous exercise.
Weight training also tends to be synergystic with dieting. They tend to reinforce one another. Your diet supports the weight training, and the weight training supports the diet's goals. You'll find greater motivation to stick with your diet plan if you lift weights because the diet will tend to be much more sane and rational - it has to be to support the weight lifting, and two you have an additional reason to stick with the diet plan, which is your continued success lifting weights.
What's truly sad is women who don't lift weights out of the absolutely idiotic fear that they will "get bulky". Sorry ladies, it isn't going to happen. You have to eat a lot of food and train hard for a long, long time to "get bulky".
ReplyAdditionally as a fun challenge I defy anyone to find me a SINGLE person who gained all the FAT back yet continued to lift weights consistently.
ReplyYou're right Barry. The EPOC (Excess post-exercise oxygen consumption) - i.e. your energy burning capacity, in specific, fat burning - is raised the most when one engages in anaerobic (e.g. weight training) training. This is also linked to the increased insulin sensitivity benefits people acquire as a result of such activities.
ReplyP.S. sorry, forgot to mention: great article!
ReplyI lost 10 pounds then gained 10 pounds back lifting weights the whole time.
My mistake was thinking that 1200 calories a day (at 5'2", 110-120lbs exercising 6 days a week for 1hr each day) was a good idea. When I stopped eating "diet" foods and counting calories and started eating normal portions of healthier, whole foods I gained it all back (okay, some was probably muscle, but not all).
You can gain weight if you eat too much no matter what you're eating and no matter what exercise you're doing. So while I'm much healthier now than I was at my lowest, I'd still like to lose some of the weight I put back on, without starving myself this time.
By the way, I did bulk up a bit lifting weights. It is not impossible, it's genetic. I'm not the incredible hulk but it's definitely noticeable. I don't care though because I love lifting weights!
ReplyYeah, I lift weights AND do cardio...actually, I attribute regular exercise to my maintained weight loss. I lost 90 lbs and I've kept it off for 7 years now. Since starting an exercise program, I've noticed that my muscle tone is better and I like the overall shape of my body more. Oh, and yeah, women don't tend to bulk up when they lift weights. I can bench press 70 lbs or so, squat 250 lbs, and I fit into a size 0.
ReplyWow, a woman squatting 250 is pretty impressive.
ReplyGot video of it? Is it parallel at least?
ReplyHow much do you weigh? You have a near world record Squat for a woman and an untrained level bench press. I don't believe you squat that much anywhere near parallel. It must be in the smith machine(the bar doesn't count)
ReplyYeah, I can squat 250 using the Smith machine...If I do it just using freeweights, it's closer to 175 lbs. I weigh around 100-105 lbs...I have a lot of muscle mass for my size, I suppose.
ReplyI explain this to friends and they don't listen!
Reply"Besides, who the hell wants to be a cardio bunny? I feel sorry for all the hampsters I see at my gym spending hours in such a monotonous exercise."...
I do only cardio at the gym and resistance training at home. I hate universal and free weights. I think that there are more functional ways of weight training than what is available in the weight room.
So not all women are cardio bunnies. On the other hand, seems like a lot of men I know only do weight training and wonder why they are still fat.
ReplyI really enjoy the monotony of cardio (I find it good for thinking!) but all the enthusiasm here is making me think I should take up some weight training too...!
Replyi have kept off 20 lbs for about a year and a half now- but i've lost track of my healthy eating habbits and have fallen back only into one of my bad habbits- late night munchies. i used to just have a small apple and a lipton raspberry sugar free green tea but i've since foiled that and started with cookies and milk. i've started back at the gym 5 days a week, as i had actually cut down to just 2 days for only 30 minutes. i've only gained back 10 lbs but i dont want to gain anymore- i was doing so well and it just takes one too many "it wont kill you's" to push you off the wagon. the tips above are very helpful and eye opening!
ReplyStaci, well done on identifying the problem and getting back on track! You'll lose that 10lbs in no time, I bet. Maybe have the milk and cookies as a once/twice a week treat?
ReplySo many people have the wrong idea about the word "diet" as a crash-course weight loss plan, when actually the word diet just means what you eat. You make some excellent points.
A co-worker is currently trying the Medifast plan (lots of shakes, bars, & 1 "real" meal per day). He's lost about 10 pounds in 10 days, but he's to the point now where he understands why I've been recommending balanced meals & exercise all along. I just hope he's at least able to take a few good habits away from the experience!
ReplyTen pounds of what?? Probably fat, water and (gasp!) muscle.
ReplyI recently read in the WSJ (Can't Keep the Weight Off? Maybe Leptin is the Culprit) that your body activates a hormonal response when you lose around 10% of your bodyweight, strongly urging you to put the weight back on. The effect can last for years, so permanent change is a long-term battle. I think this is important for people to recognize, as there is always a tendency to fly the "mission accomplished" banner prematurely. :-)
ReplyGoing beyond "Your diet should re-educate your eating habits. For example, you might learn to cook with a little spray oil rather than tablespoons of oil"; people need to become mindful of their eating patterns and motivations.
A diet provides this control by external means.
Eat this at this time, followed by exercise like this for this long.
When the 'diet' is over, we fall back into our familiar patterns.
A good reference about mindful/mindless eating is Brian Wansink's book Mindless Eating.
It has been helpful for a good percentage of my clients.
I think I will go and put together a blog post on the book - stay tuned
ReplyOh, I forgot.
Here is another method for developing healthy habits - food and exercise.
http://healthhabits.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/4-steps-to-developing-health-habits/
ReplyI am a firm believer in that you have to change your habits. I am going on almost two years from when I started a weight loss program. I hired a personal trainer to work out with weights, I continued with the cardio I had been doing (although I increased the time and itensity) and I've gradually changed my eating habits. At no time did I ever consider myself on a diet. I just tried to eat healthier and as I saw the results that just kept me motivated. Over this time I have lost almost 80 pounds. I'm 5'2" and now weigh about 114 so I'm pretty much at my end goal. All I'm trying to do now is continue to lower my body fat percentage.
I truly think the key was not considering myself on a diet. I did adjust my eating habits and now have a routine which includes lifting weights 4 times per weeks (I still have the trainer), doing cardio 3 - 5 times per week (my trainer directs what cardio I do) and watching what I eat. It's a lifestyle adjustment. There's no end, no going back to before. I think that's where most people fail. Once they reach a goal, they go back to the old habits and undo some or all of what they achieved.
ReplyOnly two things to keep the weight off long term:
1. Exercise
2. Whole foods
All those shakes, 100 calorie packs, packaged low-fat, processed garbage "foods" will never help one keep the weight off, if they can even help one to diet down.
What works best for me is weight lifting, HIIT and avoiding grains, legumes and all processed foods.
Some other people might not be able to incorporate weight training into their lives (for whatever reason), or do better with grains than I ever could (they make me tired and fat).
But what I do know that seems universal: 1. Exercise, 2. Whole foods
ReplyDefinitely! Even if one disagrees as to the best whole foods (examples of grains vs. meats vs. dairy vs. vegetables, etc.), you're not doing yourself any harm by choosing things that are real, not created. (Well, provided they aren't poisonous to begin with.)
Reply"But what I do know that seems universal: 1. Exercise, 2. Whole foods"
Word!!
ReplyAbsolutely! Even though I've maintained my weight loss for about 7 years now, I went through a phase where I was eating a lot of fat free ice cream and CoolWhip, among other processed "diet" foods, figuring I was running enough to not gain. Wrong! I gained about 20 lbs back and then cut out the fake foods and got back down to my goal weight. I haven't touched those weird franken-foods since...now I pretty much eat whole foods: fruits, veggies, eggs, nuts, yogurt, milk, lean meat and fish, and whole grains.
ReplyWhole foods are the best way to loose weight and keep it off. Any time you eat processed food it will spike your the sugar in your blood and your body releases insulin to control the sugar and store it as fat. That is why these low fat diets do not work. If you look at these so called healthy diet snacks on the market you may find high fructose corn syrup with in the first few ingredients. This can be disastrous to any one trying to lose weight.
If you are to eat grains, the best ones are brown rice and oat meal. I believe in a balanced diet. I stay away from all sauces and only use vinegar and olive oil on salads. I eat four to five meals a day, I make sure these meals in clued 20 to 30 grams of protein, medium to high fat dairy, fruit or grains, and vegetables. I do not count calories, I eat until I am full.
I started this a month ago and lost six inches on my waist line. I feel I am not on a diet because I feel stuffed silly all day.
ReplyI think many people fail with their diets because they expect too much to happen too soon. It's hard to continue with a diet, if the desired results don't show up relatively quickly. I think people tend to be too ambitious when they first start, and then get disappointed when they don't see those results.
ReplyDieting is a four-letter word. Getting healthier and losing weight is all about making small little changes as you go, and making a full lifestyle change, not just a temporary one.
It's not easy, but people can do it. Just eating more fruits and veggies and going for a walk a few times a week can make a huge difference!
ReplyI think the most common reason why people are not successful with their diets is that they choose a diet that they cannot stick with long-term. A diet will not be successful if you cannot incorporate it into your lifestyle. Many people see diets as a temporary inconvenience, rather than an improved way of eating.
I don't think it's the weightlifting (although it certainly helps) or the wrong diets that's causing this problem - it's the wrong mindset.
ReplyWeight loss, Lose the Pounds, Low Fat, No Fat whatever it's called it really boils down to your body and schedule. All the programs out there do not work for everyone. You have to consider body type, metabolism, lifestyle. I think lifestyle has the high rate of failure for weight loss and this is why most of us don't succeed. We have to change our schedules to help with eating at the right time, exercise and preping meals (if that's what's called for)if not one or two days of of schedule and your starting over. You need to find what works for YOU.
ReplyWeight training or no, I've always regained the weight I've lost -- even with a very healthy diet. I think I was just meant to be fluffy. Even when I exercised 2 hours a day, lived with a competitive power lifter and went to the gym every day including Christmas Day...always regained the weight. I maintained a healthy weight for almost two years, but only by eating 1800 calories a day and exercising 2 hours a day. I just can't live forever eating such a small amount of food and eventually the calories creep in.
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