Why do most diets fail?

One important one mentioned a LOT in the thread below is: you can't think of getting to your goal weight as the end of your journey.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1422943/long-time-maintainers-how-do-you-do-it/p1

You've gotta have a plan for the rest of your life.

TavistockToad wrote: »

Lifestyle change instead of diet

/thread

complacency. drop a few...feel good...get complacent.

Diets don't work it's about a lifestyle change. You have to want to lose weight you have to do it for yourself not anyone else. You need to be committed you have to exercise. Eat healthy not junk food or empty calories .

Diets tell you (in general) what to eat to lose weight. Once you hit your goal, you go back to eating like you were before the diet, which is what made you gain the weight in the first place. A diet doesn't give you the tools you need to adjust your eating habits to sustain the weight loss. That's why I at least refer to it as 'changing your eating habits'. If you're just going to go back to eating the same way you were that put the weight on, what's the point? You have to learn the tools to use to keep the weight off, which diets don't do.

I looked up the word diet. And of course it is both a noun and a verb. And my diet is a noun. It is not something I do or requires action.. it is just types of food that I habitually eat on a day to day basis.

Diet to most others is a verb and while most others may feel that diet is known as dieting to restrict oneself as noted in the definition. Perhaps the mindset of a an individual person needs to not look at diet as this taboo word that means restrictive, hard, etc..,

It has to be first and foremost not to just loose weight, it has to be life changing and life altering way to a new lifestyle. If one just looses weight for the sake of loosing weight and did not learn new habits along the way nor a new mindset then the weight will certainly come back on. This is way easier for some than others. Some may yo-yo many times before it clicks.

Look at it this way, long term perspective is needed. You can tell how important something is today by measuring its potential future impact on your life.

I've failed to maintain my weight loss in the past because the "lifestyle" changes I was making were too drastic and required me to exclude a huge list of foods. It was a big deal to eat out at a restaurant or at someone's house. What I ate was so clearly different from everyone else that it became an uncomfortable topic of conversation in social gatherings. My "lifestyle" became more and more all consuming, fueled more by emotion and less by critical thought, further alienating me socially. It was almost as if I was brainwashed into a food-based religious cult!! Eventually I decided I wanted a normal life back and started eating all the so-called "evil" foods again, and of course gained weight (but my overall health improved a lot). As I've started back down the weight loss path, I reflected on times in my life when I was able to maintain a low weight, and also *critically* read scientific weight loss studies (without the bias of my previous diet-lifestyle-religion) where participants lost weight and kept it off long term.

The one answer I found, consistent in my own life and in scientific research is it doesn't matter what you eat, if you create a calorie surplus you will gain weight. If you want to lose weight, you need to create a deficit. If you want to maintain weight, you need to avoid a calorie surplus.

It doesn't matter what you eat. You can eat junk food all day long as long you want. You don't have to eat non-fat, low fat, heart healthy, sugar free, lean protein, low carb, keto, vegan, vegetarian, whole grain, clean, organic anything at all. Sure eating less of certain foods makes it more likely to stay under your calorie targets and from a nutrition standpoint, if you're cutting calories, you need to make sure you're getting enough basic nutrition. But research shows *what* you eat has little to do with actual weight loss, it's *how much* you eat that matters.

You need to create a calorie deficit to lose weight. If you're gaining weight, it's because you don't have a calorie deficit.

That said, I'm not a health professional but I'm aware there are some medical conditions such that you could gain weight even with a calorie deficit... however for the majority of people, if you're gaining weight it's because you're eating too much.

The approach I'm taking for my weight loss is to set my target daily calorie intake to what is required to maintain my target weight. That way when I hit my target weight, I'll already be aware of how much food I should eat. I will always count calories for the rest of my life and I will always weigh myself at least weekly. I agree with the others, weight maintenance has to be a lifestyle change, but it shouldn't be such a drastic change that you can't sustain it for the rest of your life.

majigurl wrote: »

Winter.
For me.. it's winter. I do great Mid Feb/mar to nov. .. from late nov to feb/mar all I want to do is stay warm and eat carbs

There are so many reasons they "fail". Not realistic, life factors, people get tired of it... goes on and on..

Lol, I first read that as "all I want to do is stay warm and eat crabs." I thought, well, that sounds pretty strange, but she must really like crabs ...

Has to be a life habit that doesn't feel as though giving up everything you enjoy. Don't give up things, find acceptable alternatives or adjust the portion size. Have seen other posts about not "wasting" calories on rubbish foods but saving them for nice things.

Its been over a year now for me in maintenance, I eat more but only because I exercise harder, the key is finding an acceptable balance. I don't sweat a few lbs, my final target was 133 and now as long as I'm between 3 lbs (+/-) I'm happy. I do try and aim for minus pre holidays!

My favourite analogy is if you do "fall off" its like dropping your mobile phone, you don't then think well that's that then and stamp on it, you pick it up and move on.

Good question. Yes, most people do put the weight back on. Why? Because the switch has not gone on in their head that tells them this is a change for the rest of your life. This can be a daunting thought. Devise your own "diet" to meet your own needs and lifestyle. It takes a lot of reading and trial and error, and eventually, you find it. Don't be daunted and don't be taken in by fad diets. Life without excess weight and better fitness worth it. Nothing that is easy to get is worth having in life.

Why was I, 16 years ago, in the high 300s? There were simple answers. There was the daily visit to a C-store to buy a large bag of Doritos which I ate on the commute home. There was the daily visit to a C-store to buy a pint of chocolate milk and a bag of powdered doughnuts which I ate on the commute to work. There was the 'every time I saw a Jack-N-The-Box' stop for an Ultimate Cheeseburger. There was the pancakes, hash browns, and sausage breakfast at the company cafeteria after I got to work. There was the casual dining restaurant dinner with my wife after I got home. Every day. How did I get my weight down to the high 200s? Stop all that. After spending several years in the high 200's, I identified some new bad habits I'd gotten into which were keeping me in the high 200's. I've now changed my high-calorie, protein, and salt breakfast for a mostly protein and fiber breakfast. I've slightly adjusted my habits with the company junk food and candy bowl. I've moved a substantial portion of my calorie and salt budget from noon to evening. This allows me to have a generous meal when I get home. With these new changes, I can get a 1200-1500 calorie day with under 1500 mg Sodium and not experience any hunger. The only way this fails is if I get into more bad habits.