Unveiling the Truth About Fad Diets: Sustainable Weight Loss Simplified
In a world where fad diets come and go like passing trends, it's crucial to separate fact from fiction when it comes to achieving lasting, sustainable weight loss.
Our guest expert Lydia Sutakowsky - Dietitian from the Sunshine Coast Gut Clinic breaks down all you need to change your eating and exercise habits, allowing you to shed those unwanted kilos in a way that's both effective and maintainable.
What is a fad diet?
Definition: Fad
An intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, especially one that is short-lived a craze.
Think Paleo, Atkins, Scarsdale, Keto – you get the gist.
Let’s starts with a number 1 tip – if it’s a fad – don’t do it.
Why?
Because they don’t work in the long term
They are rarely backed by any scientific research or evidence to show health benefits.
Often, they are unhealthy.
Restrictive eating is not the path to good health – see diagram below.
Try to avoid getting stuck in the diet cycle.
Rather than trying the next Fad diet, let’s identify ways to make permanent changes to your eating/exercise routine to enable weight loss that is sustainable.
Let’s start with some ‘feel good’ thoughts.
Are you exercising regularly?
Are you mostly maintaining your weight?
If you said, ‘yes’ to both, the good news is that you have aced ‘weight maintenance’.
And this is backed by evidence – the people who are successful in maintaining weight are those who exercise regularly.
Pat yourself on the back and let’s keep going.
Are you desiring weight loss but are not successful?
So now we need to look properly at what is going in your mouth. And I’m not just talking about food, we need to consider the drinks too.
Despite what you might read on social media, your weight is determined by an energy equation.
If you eat more energy (calories or kilojoules) than you need – you will gain weight.
If you eat less energy than you need – you will lose weight.
But – I’m hearing the buts.
I was good all week and didn’t lose any weight.
Were you good all weekend too?
What happens often is that people are great Monday to Thursday and probably put themselves into an energy deficit (state in which you should lose weight).
But Friday night they have half a bottle of wine and get a takeaway, and Saturday they go out for breakfast and Sunday they go out for lunch then meet with friends for a drink and a nibble.
And on Monday they feel incredibly frustrated because they haven’t lost any weight. And they were so good all week!
Unfortunately, it’s going to take a bit more effort than being good Monday to Thursday.
Let’s create some goals to give you a clear focus:
Eat five serves of low-calorie vegetables every day (even on the weekends).
Low calorie vegetables are everything except potato, corn, sweet potato, turnips and parsnips.To enable point 1 to happen, you need point 2.
Get organised.
This means shop properly, plan your meals and include some easy ‘high veg’ meals into your weekend plans.
Here’s a tip for free – plan one meal for the week that you can cook extra and freeze a serve for Friday night. For example, a chicken curry (just make sure you put vegetables into it).Aim for a well-balanced diet (this is more enjoyable, sustainable and healthy). This means that you get energy from all the macros – protein, carbohydrates and fat.
Ensure that there is a source of protein at each meal. This does not mean only meat. You get protein from edamame beans, egg, cottage cheese, fish, prawns, tofu, all legumes.Be honest and tough with yourself – where are the extra calories coming from? Another tip for free – it won’t be from eating too much fruit or vegetables.
My suggestion is give yourself one treat per day and aim for something around the 100 calories mark. See below.
