Don't say the Word "DIET" every again!

Don’t ever use the word “Diet” again! Yes, I even used it in the title of past articles but that was because “Diet” is a word people understand. Everyone has “been on a diet” or even “tried every diet in the world”.

The problem is that the word “Diet” can also mean failure. How many diets have you been on? How many of these diets worked? How many diets took weight off and gave you the tools and knowledge to keep the weight off long term?

I’m guessing that your answer is none. That’s why it’s been reported that up to 25% of all Americans are on a diet at any given time. America is also the fattest country in the world. Our obesity rate continues to go up every year. I would have to say that all this dieting is not working. Unfortunately, failed dieters blame the diet of the week and move on to the next.

Some diets in and of themselves are setting people up to fail.

A starvation diet will flush a ton of water out of a person’s body. They will be thrilled with their new temporary lower weight. Just about this time the human body kicks into starvation mode. The dieters metabolism dramatically slows down and stops burning calories. Next, any calories that are burned are not the desired fat but lean body tissue – Muscles. Yes, the starving body keeps its precious body fat and gives up its muscle.

Now the poor dieter starts to get frustrated with the lack of progress. He or she starts to eat more. Guess what the human body does? It stores any excess calories as body fat. The dieter will rebound up to their old weight but their body has shifted in composition.

The dieter now has less muscle, more fat and is burning less calories every day. Muscle burns calories! Fat burns almost nothing. This unfortunate dieter is now storing more fat each and every day by eating the same amount of food as they did before they started their diet.

Another problem is that diets are temporary. They are started and stopped all the time. For example, some of us need a New Years resolution to start a diet. Full of hope, we might last a week before falling into old habits. We will wait to start a diet until after a big event or a holiday knowing we will stuff ourselves. Often times we will even eat more knowing that our diet starts in a few short days.

Now, with this report to map out your success, you will not be on this roller coaster of dieting ever again. You will not be yo-yo dieting again. You are making a life style change. You will slowly and surely start changing a little every day. You will be implementing easy strategies into your life style as early as today.

The key is thinking long term. You didn’t put on your weight over night (even though it may have finally been noticed overnight). How can you expect to then lose the weight over night?

This lifestyle change may be a slow and steady process but it is the only way to see long term healthy results.

Jeff Dedrick