By now, you've heard it all - Paleo, the Atkins diet, high carb dieting, the Mediterranean diet, fasting, etc. News flash: if you do not enjoy the workout regimen you are following, and if you wake up every morning dreading what your scant diet "allows" you to eat, you will likely burn out. More than likely, actually. According to the journal of the American Psychological Association up to two-thirds of people who go on diets not only gain the weight they lost back, but are inclined to gain more to place them at an even unhealthier level than they were at before. These numbers may not surprise you with the increasing population of overweight people in the world. What may surprise you, however, is how easily avoided this could all be.
Every year come January first, millions of people set out to change their life for the better in taking up a more active lifestyle with healthier food intake. But the reason why so many of these people will become easily deterred and give up on their ambitions is due to the inability to forefront longevity. Prioritizing longevity is something that a large majority of successful people apply to their trade. Just as accountants take vacation time so that their mind and sanity does not wane, an elite runner will cut a workout short when experiencing ligament discomfort in their foot. Thinking about the big picture and opting not to rush your endeavors can be counterintuitive while dieting, but there is sound reasoning to support the concept.
One of the biggest mistakes a person can make when beginning their diet is to drastically increase their caloric intake. There are two reasons why.
1. You will absolutely hate it.
No matter how strong your mental fortitude is and no matter how determined you are to shed fat, the eviscerated energy, jealousy of the guy eating a donut next to you and the eventual plateau of results will prove to be unsurmountable obstacles.
2. It is not the most efficient way to diet.
While cutting your calories immensely right off the bat will lead to rapid fat loss in the early stages, the metabolic roller coaster this will put your body on will eventually lead to diminished losses in the near future.
The science behind this is rather rudimentary. If you go from a state of maintenance or slightly above maintenance level calories (maintenance meaning just enough calories where you're not losing nor gaining weight) to extreme lows, your body will lose a substantial amount of weight in the first few weeks, until it realizes it is in a current state of drastically net negative calories. Once this happens, your body will become less efficient in burning off and excreting these calories - holding on to them for fear of the body receiving inadequate calories to function properly. If the person again drops their calories even further to combat this, the metabolism will soon deteriorate even further to stall fat loss at the even lower calorie level. Therefore, when the person binges or strays from their diet, their less efficient metabolism will make the large influx of calories lead to catalyzed fat loss due to the bodies inefficiency in using them for energy output.
So what kind of dieting method will increase the chance that you stick it out? That would be one that strives for moderation. Instead of hating your life after just one week of cutting out carbs in their entirety, just take one less serving of rice at dinner and double up on the side of broccoli. Instead of refraining from ever having chips again with your sandwich for lunch, cut down the serving size by a quarter.
You get the point; little adjustments here and there that still allow you to enjoy a dinner with your family for your Dad's birthday. While you may only be curtailing 100 calories or so per meal, that would equate to around 350 calories a day eliminated from your diet. Considering that one pound of fat is approximately 3,500 calories, that would put you on a path to lose around .75 pounds a week. After three months, due to the diet not being a reckless one that has your metabolism withering and your deprived body indulging in the all too occasional binge, you're looking at 9 lost pounds. Instead of embarking on a diet that would fade and lead to further fat gained come time for next year's resolution, you could be in the best shape of your life.
"Moderation is key" never seemed so applicable of a saying.
