fbpx

Why restrictive diets don’t work (and what you should do instead)

Restrictive diets don't work, Nourished Weight Loss does
Weird, restrictive and random diets don’t work!

When your weight or body composition changes…

“gee thanks (insert cause here) ___ holiday eating, perimenopause, medical issues, change of exercise, general ageing___”

…it can be tempting to skip meals, restrict your eating or “be good” for a wee while.

But when we make changes that are too strict or can’t be sustained, or even if we lose too much weight too quickly, our body sees that as a threat to our survival. So it will metabolically adapt to avoid weight loss that could threaten our survival. Clever huh? Well kind of! In this modern age it is usually unlikely that our survival is threatened by a scarcity of calories, but our caveman brain hasn’t evolved to biologically understand that.

Proof that restrictive diets don’t tend to work longterm

Take the Biggest Loser tv show…awful programme but fascinating to research. For those not familiar, obese contestants signed up to a 9 month show to be put through a grueling diet and exercise programme, with the person who lost the most weight crowned “The Biggest Loser”. Data collected before and after filming showed that contestants did lose weight but their metabolic rates also decreased. A decreased metabolic rate means that people have to eat less food to even just maintain their weight. And the reduction in their metabolic rate was more than expected with their weight loss by the researchers.

But even more surprisingly/worryingly/depressingly when the contestants were visited after 6 years and more data was collected, contestants’ weights had largely been regained but their metabolic rate went down even more. So they had to eat even less food to just maintain their larger weight. They were essentially set up for failure. And a group of contestants actually took legal proceedings against the show because of this.

The graph below shows how the contestants’ weight (blue bars) initially went down with weight loss but then increased as weight was regained. The red line shows their metabolic rate continuing with the downward trend even though the weight was regained. So weight maintenance or further loss becomes more and more difficult.

There is a better way

But imagine if you could lose excess weight effectively, while nourishing your body at the cellular level and maintaining muscle mass, satiety hormone production and enjoying an abundance of food? You can!

I developed the Nourished Weight Loss course for this very reason. Utilising my knowledge and nutrition skills from 20+ years clinical experience, and being a lover of good food myself, I created this 4 week online course to help people avoid the yo-yo dieting trap and gain confidence in their eating for the longterm. One client that really kickstarted the course development was a lovely 70 something year old lady who had yo-yo dieted her whole life, and came to me disillusioned and weighing approximately 20kg more than when she started her diet journey decades before. She told me she would give anything to be back to that weight she loathed so much at the time.

The course focuses on protein, veggies, gut health, abundance, resistance exercise, quality carbohydrates, healthy fats, stress, sleep and more. It’s a way of lifelong eating that is delicious, suitable for the whole family, uses “normal” foods, easy and healthy. It is not restrictive, depriving, expensive, difficult or boring.

Learn a simple action to help you

If you want a taste of one action, check out my free video training here – this one thing can make a huge difference to your nutrition and body composition. If you would like some guidance to learn more about what your body needs now, click here for details about Nourished Weight Loss.

Do it once, do it right. Don’t be sucked into another short term diet that doesn’t care for your body. It can do a lot more harm than good, and have long-lasting negative effects on your ability to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight into the future.

Back to top