As I was driving home this weekend, a commercial came on the radio. Obviously, at this point, I would plug my phone into the aux cord to listen to my favorite Hoodie Allen playlist, but this commercial was intriguing to me. It claimed that the secret to losing weight was consuming fats and advertised for water infused with fats in order to aid weight loss. Although I agree that our population is probably not consuming enough healthy fats, I know that drinking fat infused water isn't going to help anyone lose weight. Advertisements for fad diets are everywhere. Walking downtown, scrolling through Pinterest, talking to friends, etc., it is nearly impossible to not be fascinated by the alluring promises of self-worth and confidence that losing weight will do. As Special K would ask, "What will you gain when you lose?" Fad diets are faulty promises to our population and are sickly promoting our weight loss obsessed society.
First of all, let me reiterate what you have probably heard a thousand times: weight loss is a matter of energy. You need to consume less energy than you put out in order to lose weight. Simple, right? That's all weight loss is. Yet, many people believe these weird food myths that they develop from what they hear or read. Take, for example, Regina George: she actually believed that butter is a carb and that eating weird Swedish bars will make her lose weight. Although that example is slightly exaggerated, it's coherent to the idea that we honestly just overthink the process of weight loss. Our society is making this more complicated than it needs to be.
What exactly is a fad diet? When I type "fad diet definition" into Google, the first thing that pops up is this excerpt from familydoctor.org saying,
"A fad diet is a weight loss plan or aid that promises dramatic results. These diets typically don't result in long-term weight loss and they are usually not very healthy. In fact, some of these diets can actually be dangerous to your health."
Common fad diets that you have probably heard about include the South Beach Diet, Atkins, The Zone, Weight Watchers, the Mediterranean Diet, Paleo Diet, Volumetrics, Raw Food Diet, Nutrisystem, etc. There are countless examples and they all promise the same thing: weight loss results. And with weight loss, apparently, you will feel better about yourself and have a happier life.
However, the thing with these fad diets is that you will actually start to feel good. When you are able to complete a goal or a challenge, your body will release feel-good hormones such as endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin. With these hormones floating around in your bloodstream, you will feel a rush of happiness, confidence, and satisfaction. These feelings might make you believe that it is a result of the fad diet altering your body composition, but it is completely psychological. When you eliminate a food group, you deplete your body of those nutrients. Your body will turn to compensate other body processes in order to allow your body to function optimally. The harm that you are inflicting on your body is not worth the temporary feelings of satisfaction that fad diets will give you.
The only true way to lose weight is by exercising and eating healthy. There are no quick tricks or pills that you can take in order to have safe and permanent weight loss. Although this process seems tedious, you can make it fun by trying to reach fitness goals such as training for a 5K, 10K, or half marathon! A goal is always motivational and the feeling of running a race with a friend is exhilarating. Your fad diet might not work, but weight loss isn't impossible either.
