The key to dieting success

I am going to cover one of the most important topics: the psychology of dieting. This is why some diets work for some people and not for others.

It is the KEY to successful dieting.

The reason you haven’t found what works for you is psychology and how you feel while dieting rather than anything physiological.

The reason ‘X’ diet worked for your friend but not for you is down to psychology not physiology… and then subsequently, adherence.

Any diet that creates an energy deficit will ‘work’ for fat loss.

Some people believe that to be an over simplification but it is not. That is it. It is simple but it is not easy. And various things impact energy balance but that is for another day…

The key factor in dieting success is how restricted you feel on that diet, how much you still enjoy your life and what your resulting behaviours are. This is very individual.

For example, I find tracking tedious & unnecessary beyond an initial period to promote calorie awareness.

You don’t HAVE to track your calories but it is a very useful tool for many people. It is important to remember that the benefit of calorie tracking isn’t the numbers on your app. It is the accountability, the awareness and the consideration of everything you consume. You can do those things without tracking.

Back to my point:

There is ample evidence both scientific and anecdotal showing that you can lose weight on low carb, low fat, keto, intermittent fasting, weight watchers, paleo, IIFYM, clean eating, calorie tracking.. basically anything that is going to reduce your calorie intake and create an energy deficit.

Some people find it surprising that there are so many diets that seem to work but it’s not really…

The people that successfully lose weight long term on any of these diets have found a way to create an energy deficit that suits them.

Side note: Many people wrongly attribute their success to a specific diet rather than the mechanism (calorie restriction). This can result in food fear and orthorexic tendencies e.g. believing you only lost weight because you cut out carbs and then avoiding carbs for the rest of your life.

This is why it is important to understand the reason you lost weight (calorie deficit) as that gives you far more freedom around food.

The diet that is best for you is, to a large degree, the one you feel least restricted on. This is why there is no 1 best diet for everyone.

Restriction is subjective not objective. You can’t tell someone they are restricted or not. Being restricted isn’t a specific calorie number like 1500 is restrictive and 1800 isn’t.

It is something you perceive which is why the mindset behind dieting is so important.

Restriction is subjective not objective.

One of the big problems with the way we think about dieting is that it creates restriction. The word diet give connotations of food avoidance, of hunger, of suffering … of restriction. As soon as you tell someone they are on a diet they immediately feel restricted even if you haven’t restricted them. And as soon as we feel restricted we tend to want to fight against that.