By Will Brink
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Most people who read my articles
and e-books know me as a science guy who likes to quote studies
and apply research to everyday problems such as weight loss,
bodybuilding, and other health/fitness related topics. However,
sometimes you have to step back from the science and look
at the big picture to help bring people back into focus, so
they can see the forest for the trees, so to speak.
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For most people reading this article,
finding an effective diet that works most of the time must seem
as complicated as nuclear physics. It’s not, but there are
a bewildering number of choices for diets out there. High fat or
no fat? High carbohydrate or no carbohydrate? Low protein or high
protein? To make matters worse, there are a million variations and
combinations to the above diet scenarios to add to the confusion.
It seems endless and causes many people to throw up their hands
in frustration and give up. In this article I will attempt to change
all that.
There are some general guidelines, rules of thumb, and ways of viewing
a diet program that will allow you to decide, once and for all,
if it’s the right diet for you. You may not always like what
I have to say, and you should be under no illusions this is another
quick fix, “lose 100 lbs. in 20 days,” guide of some
sort. However, if you are sick and tired of being confused, tired
of taking the weight off only to put it back on, and tired of wondering
how to take the first steps to deciding the right diet for you that
will result in permanent weight loss, then this is the article that
could change your life…
Do you need to be a scientist to apply what you will learn here?
No. A mind reader or clairvoyant? No. A nutritionist or medical
doctor? Not at all. What you need to be is open-minded and willing
to learn a few key concepts that will allow you to sort through
the confusion.
You will be able to apply what you learn here to any diet you are
considering and decide if it makes sense, once and for all! The
process, however, is neither easy nor quick per se, but I never
promised you either of those things… T
his article does not look at specific diets but will teach you to
take a logical approach and apply some common sense to choosing
a nutritional plan for life long weight loss. If you are willing
and able to make a paradigm shift, then let’s proceed.
Does your diet pass “The Test”?
What is the number one reason diets
fail long term; above all else? The number one reason is…drum
roll…a lack of long term compliance. The numbers don’t
lie; the vast majority of people who lose weight will regain it
- and often exceed what they lost. You knew that already didn’t
you?
Yet, what are you doing to avoid it? Here’s another reality
check: virtually any diet you pick which follows the basic concept
of “burning” more calories then you consume –
the well accepted “calories in calories out” mantra
– will cause you to lose weight. To some degree, they all
work: Atkins-style, no carb diets, low fat high carb diets, all
manner of fad diets - it simply does not matter in the short term.
If your goal is to lose some weight quickly, then pick one and follow
it. I guarantee you will lose some weight. Studies generally find
any of the commercial weight loss diets will get approximately the
same amount of weight off after 6 months to a year. For example,
a recent study found the Atkins' Diet, Slim-Fast plan, Weight Watchers
Pure Points program, and Rosemary Conley's Eat Yourself Slim diet,
were all equally effective. (1)
Other studies comparing other popular diets have come to essentially
the same conclusions. For example, a study that compared the Atkins
diet, the Ornish diet, Weight Watchers, and The Zone Diet, found
them to be essentially the same in their ability to take weight
off after one year. (2)
Recall what I said about the number one reason diets fail, which
is a lack of compliance. The lead researcher of this recent study
stated:
“Our trial found that adherence
level rather than diet type was the primary predictor of weight
loss”(3)
Translated, it’s not which diet
they chose per se, but their ability to actually stick to a diet
that predicted their weight loss success. I can just see the hands
going up now, “but Will, some diets must be better than others,
right?” Are some diets better then others? Absolutely. Some
diets are healthier then others, some diets are better at preserving
lean body mass, some diets are better at suppressing appetite –
there are many differences between diets. However, while most of
the popular diets will work for taking weight off, what is abundantly
clear is that adhering to the diet is the most important aspect
for keeping the weight off long term.
What is a diet?
A diet is a short term strategy to
lose weight. Long term weight loss is the result of an alteration
in lifestyle. We are concerned with life long weight management,
not quick fix weight loss here. I don’t like the term diet,
as it represents a short term attempt to lose weight vs. a change
in lifestyle. Want to lose a bunch of weight quickly? Heck, I will
give you the information on how to do that here and now for no charge.
For the next 90 to 120 days eat 12
scrambled egg whites, one whole grapefruit, and a gallon of water
twice a a day. You will lose plenty of weight. Will it be healthy?
Nope. Will the weight stay off once you are done with this diet
and are then forced to go back to your “normal” way
of eating? Not a chance. Will the weight you lose come from fat
or will it be muscle, water, bone, and (hopefully!) some fat? The
point being, there are many diets out there that are perfectly capable
of getting weight off you, but when considering any eating plan
designed to lose weight, you must ask yourself:
“Is this a way of eating I can follow long term?”
Which brings me to my test: I call
it the “Can I eat that way for the rest of my life?”
Test. I know, it does not exactly roll off your tongue, but it gets
the point across.
The lesson here is: any nutritional plan you pick to lose weight
must be part of a lifestyle change you will be able to follow -
in one form or another - forever. That is, if it’s not a way
of eating you can comply with indefinitely, even after you get to
your target weight, then it’s worthless.
Thus, many fad diets you see out there are immediately eliminated,
and you don’t have to worry about them. The question is not
whether the diet is effective in the short term, but if the diet
can be followed indefinitely as a lifelong way of eating. Going
from “their” way of eating back to “your”
way of eating after you reach your target weight is a recipe for
disaster and the cause of the well established yo-yo dieting syndrome.
Bottom line: there are no short cuts, there is no free lunch, and
only a commitment to a lifestyle change is going to keep the fat
off long term. I realize that’s not what most people want
to hear, but it’s the truth, like it or not.
The statistics don’t lie: getting the weight off is not the
hardest part, keeping the weight off is! If you take a close look
at the many well known fad/commercial diets out there, and you are
honest with yourself, and apply my test above, you will find most
of them no longer appeal to you as they once did. It also brings
me to an example that adds additional clarity: If you have diet
A that will cause the most weight loss in the shortest amount of
time but is unbalanced and essentially impossible to follow long
term vs. diet B, which will take the weight off at a slower pace,
but is easier to follow, balanced, healthy, and something you can
comply with year after year, which is superior? If diet A gets 30
lbs off you in 30 days, but by next year you have gained back all
30 lbs, but diet B gets 20 lbs off you in the next 3 months with
another 20 lbs 3 months after that and the weight stays off by the
end of that year, which is the better diet?
If you don’t know the answer to those questions, you have
totally missed the point of this article and the lesson it’s
trying to teach you, and are set up for failure. Go back and read
this section again…By default, diet B is superior.
Teach a man to Fish…
A well known Chinese Proverb is;
Give a man a fish and you feed
him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
This expression fits perfectly with
the next essential step in how to decide what eating plan you should
follow to lose weight permanently. Will the diet plan you are considering
teach you how to eat long term, or does it spoon-feed you information?
Will the diet rely on special bars, shakes, supplements or pre-made
foods they supply?
Let’s do another diet A vs. diet B comparison. Diet A is going
to supply you with their foods, as well as their special drink or
bars to eat, and tell you exactly when to eat them. You will lose
– say – 30 lbs in two months. Diet B is going to attempt
to help you learn which foods you should eat, how many calories
you need to eat, why you need to eat them, and generally attempt
to help teach you how to eat as part of a total lifestyle change
that will allow you to make informed decisions about your nutrition.
Diet B causes a slow steady weight loss of 8 -10 lbs per month for
the next 6 months and the weight stays off because you now know
how to eat properly.
Recall the Chinese proverb. Both diets will assist you to lose weight.
Only one diet, however, will teach you how to be self-reliant after
your experience is over. Diet A is easier, to be sure, and causes
faster weight loss than diet B, and diet B takes longer and requires
some thinking and learning on your part. However, when diet A is
over, you are right back where you started and have been given no
skills to fish. Diet companies don’t make their profits by
teaching you to fish, they make their money by handing you a fish
so you must rely on them indefinitely or come back to them after
you gain all the weight back.
Thus, diet B is superior for allowing you to succeed where other
diets failed, with knowledge gained that you can apply long term.
Diet programs that attempt to spoon feed you a diet without any
attempt to teach you how to eat without their help and/or rely on
their shakes, bars, cookies, or pre-made foods, is another diet
you can eliminate from your list of choices.
Diet plans that offer weight loss by drinking their product for
several meals followed by a “sensible dinner;” diets
that allow you to eat their special cookies for most meals along
with their pre-planned menu; or diets that attempt to have you eating
their bars, drink, or pre-made meals, are of the diet A variety
covered above. They’re easy to follow but destined for failure,
long term. They all fail the “Can I eat that way for the rest
of my life?” test, unless you really think you can eat cookies
and shakes for the rest of your life…Bottom line here is,
if the nutritional approach you use to lose weight, be it from a
book, a class, a clinic, or an e-book, does not teach you how to
eat, it’s a loser for long term weight loss and it should
be avoided.
The missing link for long term weight loss
We now make our way to another test
to help you choose a nutrition program for long term weight loss,
and it does not actually involve nutrition. The missing link for
long term weight loss is exercise. Exercise is the essential component
of long term weight loss. Many diet programs do not contain an exercise
component, which means they are losers for long term weight loss
from the very start. Any program that has its focus on weight loss
but does not include a comprehensive exercise plan is like buying
a car without tires, or a plane without wings. People who have successfully
kept the weight off overwhelmingly have incorporated exercise into
their lives, and the studies that look at people who have successfully
lost weight and kept it off invariably find these people were consistent
with their diet and exercise plans. (4)
I am not going to list all the benefits of regular exercise here,
but regular exercise has positive effects on your metabolism, allows
you to eat more calories yet still be in a calorie deficit, and
can help preserve lean body mass (LBM) which is essential to your
health and metabolism. The many health benefits of regular exercise
are well known, so I won’t bother adding them here. The bottom
line here is, (a) if you have any intentions of getting the most
from your goal of losing weight and (b) plan to keep it off long
term, regular exercise must be an integral part of the weight loss
strategy. So, you can eliminate any program, be it book, e-book,
clinic, etc. that does not offer you direction and help with this
essential part of long term weight loss.
Side Bar: A quick note on exercise:
Any exercise is better than no exercise.
However, like diet plans, not all exercise is created equal, and
many people often choose the wrong form of exercise to maximize
their efforts to lose weight. For example, they will do aerobics
exclusively and ignore resistance training. Resistance training
is an essential component of fat loss, as it builds muscle essential
to your metabolism, increases 24 hour energy expenditure, and has
health benefits beyond aerobics.
The reader will also note I said fat loss above not weight loss.
Though I use the term ‘weight loss’ throughout this
article, I do so only because it is a familiar term most people
understand. However, the true focus and goal of a properly set up
nutrition and exercise plan should be on fat loss, not weight loss.
A focus on losing weight, which may include a loss essential muscle,
water, and even bone, as well as fat, is the wrong approach. Losing
the fat and keeping the all important lean body mass (LBM), is the
goal, and the method for achieving that can be found in my ebook(s)
on the topic, and is beyond the scope of this article. Bottom line:
the type of exercise, intensity of that exercise, length of time
doing that exercise, etc., are essential variables here when attempting
to lose FAT while retaining (LBM).
Psychology 101 of long term weight loss
Many diet programs out there don’t
address the psychological aspect of why people fail to be successful
with long term weight loss. However, quite a few studies exist that
have looked at just that. In many respects, the psychological aspect
is the most important for long term weight loss, and probably the
most underappreciated component.
Studies that compare the psychological characteristics of people
who have successfully kept the weight off to people who have regained
the weight, see clear differences between these two groups. For
example, one study that looked at 28 obese women who had lost weight
but regained the weight that they had lost, compared to 28 formerly
obese women who had lost weight and maintained their weight for
at least one year and 20 women with a stable weight in the healthy
range, found the women who regained the weight:
• Had a tendency to evaluate
self-worth in terms of weight and shape
• Had a lack of vigilance with
regard to weight control
• had a dichotomous (black-and-white)
thinking style
• Had the tendency to use eating
to regulate mood.
The researchers concluded:
“The results suggest that psychological
factors may provide some explanation as to why many people with
obesity regain weight following successful weight loss.”
This particular study was done on
women, so it reflects some of the specific psychological issues
women have - but make no mistake here - men also have their own
psychological issues that can sabotage their long term weight loss
efforts. (6)
Additional studies on men and women find psychological characteristics
such as “having unrealistic weight goals, poor coping or problem-solving
skills and low self-efficacy” often predict failure with long
term weight loss. (7) On the other hand, psychological traits common
to people who experienced successful long term weight loss include
“…an internal motivation to lose weight, social support,
better coping strategies and ability to handle life stress, self-efficacy,
autonomy, assuming responsibility in life, and overall more psychological
strength and stability.” (8)
The main point of this section is to illustrate that psychology
plays a major role in determining if people are successful with
long term weight loss. If it’s not addressed as part of the
overall plan, it can be the factor that makes or breaks your success.
This, however, is not an area most nutrition programs can adequately
tackle and should not be expected to. However, the better programs
do generally attempt to help with motivation, goal setting, and
support. If you see yourself in the above lists from the groups
that failed to maintain their weight long term, then know you will
need to address those issues via counseling, support groups, etc.
Don’t expect any weight loss program to cover this topic adequately
but do look for programs that attempt to offer support, goal setting,
and resources that will keep you on track.
“There’s a sucker born every minute”
So why don’t you see this type
of honest information about the realities of long term weight loss
more often? Let’s be honest here, telling the truth is not
the best way to sell bars, shakes, books, supplements, and programs.
Hell, if by some miracle everyone who read this article actually
followed it, and sent it on to millions of other people who actually
followed it, makers of said products could be in financial trouble
quickly. However, they also know - as the man said - “there’s
a sucker born every minute,” so I doubt they will be kept
up at night worrying about the effects that I, or this article,
will have on their business.
So let’s recap what has been learned here: the big picture
realities of permanent weight loss and how you can look at a weight
loss program and decide for yourself if it’s for you based
on what has been covered above:
• Permanent weight loss is not
about finding a quick fix diet, but making a commitment to life
style changes that include nutrition and exercise
• Any weight loss program you
choose must pass the “Can I eat that way for the rest of my
life?” test,
• The weight loss program you
choose should ultimately teach you how to eat and be self reliant
so you can make informed long term choices about your nutrition.
• The weight loss program you
choose should not leave you reliant on commercial bars, shakes,
supplements, or pre-made foods, for your long term success.
• The weight loss program you
choose must have an effective exercise component.
• The weight loss program you
choose should attempt to help with motivation, goal setting, and
support, but can’t be a replacement for psychological counseling
if needed.
Conclusion
I want to take this final section
to add some additional points and clarity. For starters, the above
advice is not for everyone. It’s not intended for those who
really have their nutrition dialed in, such as competitive bodybuilders
and other athletes who benefit from fairly dramatic changes in their
nutrition, such as ‘off season’ and ‘pre-contest’
and so on.
The article is also not intended for those with medical issues who
may be on a specific diet to treat or manage a specific medical
condition. The article is intended for the average person who wants
to get off the Yo-Yo diet merry-go-round once and for all. As that’s
probably 99% of the population, it will cover millions of people.
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People should also
not be scared off by my "you have to eat this way forever"
advice. This does not mean you will be dieting for the rest
of your life and have nothing but starvation to look forward
to. What it does mean, however, is you will have to learn
to eat properly even after you reach your target weight and
that way of eating should not be a huge departure from how
you ate to lose the weight in the first place. Once you get
to your target weight - and or your target bodyfat levels
- you will go onto a maintenance phase which generally has
more calories and choices of food, even the occasional treat,
like a slice of pizza or whatever.
Maintenance diets are a logical extension of the diet you
used to lose the weight, but they are not based on the diet
you followed that put the weight on in the first place!
Regardless of which program you choose, use the above "big
picture"approach which will keep you on track for long
term weight loss. See you in the gym!
For full references,
see below.
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Books By Will Brink
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| Fat
Loss Revealed is the ultimate fat loss system. A
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and cardio chapters, along with motivation and goal setting
and a huge online private members area and forum with a meal
planner, diet planner, nutrition database and 24/7 human personal
trainers. |
Bodybuilding
Revealed is a complete blueprint to muscle building
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weight training routines, high intensity cardio, the mental
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It's all in Will Brink's ultimate guide to gaining muscle
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About
The Author
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Will Brink has over 15
years experience as a respected author, columnist and
consultant, to the supplement, fitness, bodybuilding,
and weight loss industry and has been extensively published.Will
graduated from Harvard University with a concentration
in the natural sciences, and is a consultant to major
supplement, dairy, and pharmaceutical companies.
His often ground breaking
articles can be found in publications such as Lets Live,
Muscle Media 2000, MuscleMag International, The Life
Extension Magazine, Muscle & Fitness, Inside Karate,
Exercise For Men Only, Body International, Power, Oxygen,
Penthouse, Women’s World and The Townsend Letter
For Doctors.
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References
(1) Truby H, et al. Randomised controlled
trial of four commercial weight loss programmes in the UK: initial
findings from the BBC "diet trials" BMJ 2006;332:1309-1314
(3 June),
(2) Michael D., et al, Comparison
of the Atkins, Ornish, Weight Watchers, and Zone Diets for Weight
Loss and Heart Disease Risk Reduction. A Randomized Trial. JAMA.
2005;293:43-53.
(3) Comparison of Diets for Weight
Loss and Heart Disease Risk Reduction—Reply. Michael Dansinger.
JAMA. 2005;293:1590-1591.
(4) Kruger J. et al. Dietary and
physical activity behaviors among adults successful at weight loss
maintenance. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical
Activity 2006, 3:17 doi:10.1186/1479-5868-3-17
(5) Byrne S, et al. Weight maintenance
and relapse in obesity: a qualitative study. Int J Obes Relat Metab
Disord. 2003 Aug;27(8):955-62.
(6) Borg P, et al. Food selection
and eating behaviour during weight maintenance intervention and
2-y follow-up in obese men.Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2004 Dec;28(12):1548-54.
(7) Byrne SM. Psychological aspects
of weight maintenance and relapse in obesity. J Psychosom Res. 2002
Nov;53(5):1029-36.
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