Why
Dieting CAN'T Work
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By Joel Marion, CISSN, NSCA-CPT
Author
of "Cheat Your Way Thin"
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“Arghhhhhhh!”
Ever feel this way? Or maybe
a better question is: Ever been on a diet?
Why is dieting so psychologically
draining?
Well, for one, it requires
change in a major area of our lives—the way we eat—and
for most of us, change is a very uncomfortable thing.
Fact is, changing old habits
and forming new ones is never an easy task; however, with
dieting, it becomes exceedingly difficult given all of
the physical adaptations that occur (which we will soon
discuss).
Consider what happens in
your mind when you go on a diet.
Almost immediately you are
faced with an array of cravings. Just the sight or smell
of food mentally adds to your already present hunger pangs.
You find yourself craving foods that normally you have
no desire to eat.
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Every time you come in contact
with an “off-limits” food item—whether it be
on a television commercial, in a magazine, or physically right
in front of you—the battle begins.
Do you give into the temptation
to experience immediate pleasure, only to be swarmed by overwhelming
guilt shortly soon after? Or do you stick it out and allow the
anxiety to increase with every day?
It seems like a lose-lose situation—and
it is.
And what if you’re not making
as much progress as you had hoped? What if you’re seemingly
doing everything right and the scale just isn’t moving?
Feelings of frustration, discouragement,
and even depression emerge, making you even more inclined to
break your diet.
I mean, who wants to sacrifice
without being rewarded? At least when you bite into a chocolate
chip cookie, the taste is satisfying. But working hard to reap
no return on investment? Well that, that just flat out sucks.
There has to be a better way—and
fortunately, there is.
The simple truth is this: “diets”
can’t work.
If you tried
‘em and failed, you’re just like 99% of the rest of
the world, myself included: normal.
You see, any time you restrict
calories, you literally “program” your body to fight
against your every effort to lose weight.
Not quite making sense? Time for
a little history lesson.
Think back for just a minute to
the time in which our ancestors roamed the earth. You know,
the hunter and gather, feast and famine type days. For
those individuals, survival was king, and in order to survive,
they had to do the whole “eating” thing just like
us.
Unfortunately, things weren’t
quite as easy for this group as they are today. No supermarkets.
No drive-through meal deals. Instead, when our primitive ancestors
wanted a nice steak, they had to go find it.
This inevitably meant that there
were plenty of instances in which our yester-year counterparts
went without food for days at a time. And at other times, namely
during the winter months, their bodies were forced to get by
on very little daily food and calories.
And the reason why they didn’t
die? There’s only one—the body’s natural defense
against starvation.
Don’t get enough calories
for an extended period of time? No problem, the body simply
causes ”bad” hormones, fat storage enzymes, and hunger
to all increase while “good” hormones, metabolism,
and fat burning enzymes all take a dive.
Enter “starvation
mode”. Friend
to our ancestors; anything but to the dieter.
You see, dieting, although planned,
is nothing more than a lesser degree of premeditated starvation.
Go on a diet—any diet—and it wont be long until the
body begins fighting for every ounce of your body fat. You want
to lose it; it wants to keep it. And guess what? It wins every
time.
Sad scenario, I know.
But what if there was some way
to “trick” your body into thinking you aren’t
dieting when you actually are?
What if you could essentially
“block” the body from entering starvation mode, keeping
fat burning at its highest point, week after week?
Well, you can.
And even better news—you
can do it by strategically “cheating” on your diet
with all your favorite foods.
Is it apple pie that you crave?
Chocolate chip cookies (like me)? Or maybe just the freedom
to order whatever you want from your favorite restaurant’s
menu? Whatever it is, believe it or not, you can actually use
those foods to help you lose fat faster.
But it needs to be very strategic,
and with Cheat Your Way Thin, that’s exactly what I teach
you how to do.
“So how
does strategic cheating override the starvation protection mechanism?”
That’s a good question, and
one I’m more than happy to answer.
You see, it takes the body about
one week of calorie restriction to substantially trigger “starvation
mode” and perpetuate the negative adaptations we discussed
previously (decreased metabolism, slowed/stalled fat loss, etc).
On the other hand, it takes a
much shorter period of time to reverse these trends via strategic
practices of “overfeeding” or dietary “cheating”.
Essentially, by incorporating
bursts of strategic cheating like I teach in Cheat Your Way
Thin, you can literally turn your metabolism into your fat burning
slave by ensuring you always have an internal environment primed
for burning fat—and you do it with your favorite foods.
Oh, and did I mention just how
HUGE that is psychologically?
Thinking back, I can remember
when I used to “cheat” only to quickly be overwhelmed
by feelings of guilt and failure. Never again. Now when I cheat,
it’s planned. And each time I do, I walk away knowing that
I just accelerated my progress.
Frankly, it
doesn’t get much better than knowing that you just USED
your Thanksgiving Dinner AND dessert to speed along fat loss.
Anxiety? Nope. When cravings arise,
there is major comfort in knowing that you’ll be able to
enjoy that very food in just a few short days when your next
cheat session rolls around.
Feelings of discouragement and
decreased motivation? Definitely with other diets, but with
Cheat Your Way Thin, you’ll actually be excited to step
on the scale week after week to view the consistent, steady
progress that regular, strategic cheating yields.
Simply put, strategic cheating
solves the dietary dilemma by providing you with powerful metabolic
benefits and perhaps even more powerful psychological ones.
Finally, a
diet that actually WORKS.
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