Diet is a four-letter word, however, it is an industry with a $20 billion annual revenue (abcnews.com) attached to it and 108 million participants - and that's just for the United States.
Why are so many people investing in diets and diet aids? Because most of them don't work, leaving the consumer at the same weight as when they started, or even heavier, making them commit, once again, to another diet down the road.
I'm not saying everyone does not succeed on a diet. There are some successful losers out there. But if you look at the data, and have been in the health and fitness industry for as long as I have, you see more people starting a diet and fewer and fewer people maintaining one.
Why do they fail? It's not because of a lack of trying on the dieter's part. Instead, it is due to these five diet pitfalls: 1. Entire food groups are eliminated.
Eating a balanced diet is essential to a healthy body and a healthy body weight. In my 19 years of personal training, I have never known a piece of fruit or a "high-sugary" vegetable, like carrots, to make a person fat. Instead, what makes us fat are processed foods, sugar, excessive sodium, bad fats and inactivity.
While you may need to cut back on the serving portions of certain food groups, steer clear of diets that eliminate entire food groups. These are too strict to stick to and will only lead to bingeing later on.
2. The diet plan is a temporary fix. Most diet plans only focus on the weight loss. However, how many of you have lost weight, only to regain it after you have finished your diet program? Once you have completed you cannot go back to how you used to eat. That is what got you in that bad place to begin with.
In fact, studies have proven that an overweight person who has lost weight has to work harder at maintaining their new weight than someone who has never been overweight.
The final phase of any diet program should be a life-long maintenance phase. The diet you choose should give you the tools to lose the weight and maintain it.
3. The diet program does not ask you to move it.
While diet is about 75 per cent of the equation when trying to lose weight, you cannot ignore that a good workout program will assist you for the other 25 per cent.
What's a good workout program? One that has you strength training at least three times a week, and has you lifting heavy enough weights to fatigue your muscles while performing exercises that work the entire body as a unit.
I am also a huge advocate of high intensity interval training (HIIT). Research has proven that short and intense workouts elicit a far better calorie burn (both during and after your workout) than steady-state cardio. HIITs also improve your fitness levels faster, stimulate your growth hormone (which is not only responsible for increased caloric burn, but it also slows down the aging process), and it aids in lowering your blood pressure and triglycerides, while raising your HDLcholesterol (the good stuff) and improves your insulin resistance.
4. Inadequate sleep. Studies show that if you get less than six hours of sleep a night you will have higher levels of ghrelin, the hormone responsible for stimulating your appetite. Add that to the fact you have also cut back on your daily calories (and are already starving), and you have a recipe for disaster.
Sleep (and stress management) is crucial to both weight loss success and weight maintenance. Try meditation, yoga or deep breathing to help you get a solid seven to nine hours of sleep a night.
5. You get lost in the now and forget how far you have come.
Mindset and attitude is just as important as eating your vegetables when trying to lose and maintain your weight. If you get too stuck on the little voices in your head, belittling your every mistake, you will suffer.
Learn to take a step back and see the awesomeness that is you and what you have accomplished. Choose to keep a positive attitude and outlook and vow to never play the victim.
PJ Wren is the fitness half of the Go Fit Gals team. Check out www.gofitgals.com.
