5 Reasons Diets Fail

 

By Mark Hyman, MD


The average person gains 11 pounds for every diet they go on. Even worse, when they lose weight, they lose muscle and fat. When they regain weight, they gain back all fat. And since muscle burns seven times as many calories as fat, their metabolism is slower than when they started the diet. The cruel fact is that they then need even less calories to maintain their weight.


Haven’t you known someone who was very overweight and said they don’t eat that much? They may not be lying. They have just damaged their metabolism by yo-yo dieting.

The key to losing weight and keeping it off are two simple things. First, automatically reduce your appetite not by white knuckling it and starving yourself but fixing the out-of-whack hormones and brain chemistry that drive hunger and overeating.

The second is to automatically increase your metabolism so you burn more calories all day long. Unfortunately, most diets do the opposite – increase hunger and slow metabolism.

Here are the five reasons most diets fail and how to succeed.

1. You Use Willpower Instead Of Science To Control Your Appetite

There is a science of hunger. Unfortunately, most diets (eating less) will trigger hunger. You can only hold your breath for so long. You can only starve yourself for so long. Powerful ancient mechanisms compensate and protect us from starvation (even if it is self induced). Our hunger dramatically increases, our cravings ramp up and our metabolism slows way down to conserve energy. Eating certain foods (low fat, higher carb or sugary foods) actually increases hunger and slows metabolism.

Success Principle: Appetite

• Eat enough to satisfy your appetite (but only real whole fresh food).
• Eat protein for breakfast and avoid eating 3 hours before bed.
• Compose your meals to balance blood sugar and lower insulin. Combine protein, fat and low-glycemic, non-starchy carbs (vegetables, fruit, small amounts (less than half a cup of grains and beans) at each meal. Fat and protein and fiber slow insulin spikes.

2. You Focus On Calories (Eating Less And Exercising More)

The mantra of calories in/calories out, of energy balance as the key to weight loss, is quickly entering the scientific dustbin. Some calories make you fat, some calories make you thin. What we now know is that any foods that spike insulin (sugar, flour and even excess grains, fruit and beans) trigger a shift in your metabolism. What does insulin do? It drives all the fuel in your blood from the food you just ate into your hungry fat cells (visceral or belly fat).

Then, your body thinks you are starving even though you just ate a giant bagel or sucked down a Big Gulp. And remember, two things happen when your body thinks you are starving – you increase hunger and slow metabolism.

Have you ever eaten a big meal, then, an hour later, felt hungry again and needed to go raid the fridge or eat something sweet? That’s why.

Success Principles: Calories

•   Focus on very low-glycemic foods as the staples of your diet. Nuts, seeds, chicken, fish, grass fed meats, low-glycemic veggies (greens, salad fixings, etc.)
•   Use grains and beans sparingly (not more than a half cup once a day each).
•   Use sugar as a drug – in very small doses. And all sugar is the same. If you have to ask “is ______ OK?” It isn’t.
•   Don’t use artificial sweeteners – they trigger sweet receptors, hunger and slow metabolism leading to obesity and type 2 diabetes.

 3. You Eat A Low-Fat Diet

Most people still believe we should avoid egg yolks and that eating a low-fat diet will help them lose weight. The old idea that fat has 9 calories per gram and carbs 4 calories per gram led to the mistaken idea that if we cut out fat, we would lose weight.

Well, look what’s happened to America in the last 30 years, where low fat has been the rage and the method for weight loss. We are fatter than ever (70 percent of us are overweight), and now, 1 in 2 Americans has pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes or what I like to call “diabesity.”

Harvard scientist Walter Willet reviewed all the science on low fat and weight loss and found that it is not eating fat that makes you fat but sugar. A recent study by David Jenkins found that a low-carb (26%), high-fat (43%) vegan diet was more effective for weight loss and reducing cardiovascular risk factors than a vegan low-fat diet. The high-fat group lost 4 more pounds and dropped their cholesterol 10 more points by eating high fat. They called it Eco-Atkins!

Other studies show that by eating more fat and less carbs you can increase your metabolism by 300 calories a day (eating the same total calories a day). That’s like getting the benefit of running for an hour a day without getting off the couch. You could call it “The Butt Diet.” Sit on your butt and lose 1 pound every 11 days.

Success Principles: Fat

•   Don’t fear fat. It actually makes you feel full, speeds up your metabolism and helps you lose weight.
•   Eat good fats at every meal.
•   Eat vegetable fats, such as avocado, nuts, seeds, coconut butter or oil
•   Eat clean animal fats (organic eggs with the yolk, chicken, grass-fed meats) and fish with omega 3 fats (sardines, herring, wild salmon, black cod).

 4. You Have Hidden Reasons And Need Medical Help

There are reasons beyond your diet or amount of exercise that affect your weight and metabolism. Your body is a system and many things affect metabolism. The biggest hidden causes of weight gain or resistance to weight loss are the things that cause inflammation. And inflammation from anything that triggers weight gain by worsening insulin resistance.

What causes inflammation?

Hidden food allergies or sensitivities. Gluten and dairy are the most common culprits. But don’t switch to gluten-free or dairy-free options. Gluten-free cakes and cookies are still cake and cookies. They are still very high in sugar and refined carbs and flours. Just try soy yogurt with the sweeteners. You wouldn’t eat it!

Gut Problems. The microbiome – the 100 trillion bacteria in your gut – play an enormous role in metabolism and health. If you have bad bugs (from eating refined, high-sugar, carb, low-fiber diet or taking antibiotics, acid blockers) they can either trigger inflammation or alter how your food is broken down and absorbed. Fecal transplants from a thin to an obese person will change their metabolism. What’s next? Poop transplants for weight loss. Maybe!

Toxins. Science has discovered that common environmental chemicals (pesticides, household cleaners, make up, pollution and heavy metals) can be “obesogens.” Chemicals that make you fat. In animal studies, giving rats a toxin caused weight gain even if they ate the same amount of calories and exercised the same.

Success Principles: Find Hidden Causes of Weight Gain

• Try an elimination diet. Not eliminating calories but getting rid of inflammatory foods. Start with gluten and dairy. 100 percent for 3 weeks.
• Fix your gut. Avoid gut-busting drugs (acid blockers, antibiotics and anti-inflammatories). Starve the bad bugs by eating a low-glycemic, low-fermentation (starch) diet. Take probiotics. See a Functional  Medicine doctor to get help if you don’t succeed on your own.
• Detox your body and your life. Reduce exposure to environmental and common chemicals. See the resources at the Environmental Working Group to reduce exposures in skin-care products, household products and the food you eat (meat and veggies). And the NRDC resource for eating fish without mercury. Eat two cups of cruciferous veggies a day (broccoli family). You may need help from a Functional Medicine doctor to do a medically supervised detoxification program.

 5. You Don’t Have A Plan

Health is not something that happens to you. It is something you have to plan, like a vacation or your retirement! Most of us fail because we don’t “design our health.” We don’t set up the conditions for automatic success.

How do you design your life so that you don’t have to think about doing the right thing? You create conditions for making it easy – have all the right foods in the house, the right ingredients all ready for your morning protein shake, creating an emergency travel food pack, having your plan for exercise for the week in advance.

Also, we find that doing things together makes them easier. At Saddleback Church, we got 15,000 people to lose 250,000 pounds in a year by having them do it together. Everybody needs a buddy! Joining a group of people doing this in person or an online community or group makes it fun and makes it work. We have created online challenges where people have had profound success in redesigning their life for good.

Find what works for you but don’t expect health to happen. You have to plan for it!

Success Principles: Create a Plan

•   Commit to designing your health. Do it weekly on Sundays!
•   Create an emergency life pack of food.
•   Join a community or get a buddy or a friend.

The science of health and weight loss is not a mystery. But old ideas die hard. If you look out for these five ways that diets fail and focus on the principles of success then you will build habits and practices that work. Health and weight loss are not a struggle. It’s not rocket science, just science!

What Is Your Experience With Weight Loss? What Are Your Weight Loss Tips? 

Source: http://drhyman.com...

5 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About Weight Loss + How To Get It Right

 

Do you find yourself frequently thinking about sweets? Do you feel obligated to finish a whole bag of chips once you start? Do you eat more than you want to? Do you ever feel bad about yourself after Read

I see many patients in my practice who want to lose weight. Weight that's been creeping up over time, that came with the last baby and never left, that feels uncomfortable in jeans, or that makes someone not feel like having sex with their partner. 

Often, these patients they feel like they're doing everything they can to reach their goal, whether it’s to lose 50 pounds or 10 pounds. But no matter what they do, they are stuck. 

One patient recently told me a story I’ve heard a lot. Her little sister eats nothing but pasta, ice cream, and steak, and is stick-thin and never has to worry about weight. It drives her crazy. Meanwhile, my patient practically sleeps at SoulCycle, because she lives in fear of not burning those 400 extra calories a day. And yet her weight keeps creeping up. 

This patient is intelligent, educated, and clued-in to diet, but like many people I see, the myths she believes about weight are exactly why she can’t turn around the numbers on the scale. 

Here are the 5 most common myths about weight loss I encounter, and a 4-step formula for getting past them and achieving your goals: 

 

Myth 1: Weight loss is about calories. 

“Calories in = calories out” is a lie. Not all calories are created equal. 

Eating 500 calories of brussels sprouts is not the same as eating 500 calories of soda. While the energy that can be measured in a lab from breaking the chemical bonds stored in 500 calories of brussels sprouts might be the same as from breaking the bonds in 500 calories of soda, what happens in your body when you digest and assimilate these two foods is a totally different story. 

To eat 500 calories of brussels sprouts, you'd have to eat about 10 cups! These green veggies are packed with complex carbohydrates, protein, fiber, Vitamin C, Vitamin A and other phytonutrients. They are metabolized slowly, and the calories contained are not entirely absorbed. 

On the other hand, 500 calories of soda, the equivalent of two 20-ounce Cokes, come entirely from sugar. Those calories are easily absorbed, and when consumed, lead to an inflammatory hormonal cascade that is the beginning of diabetes, obesity, high triglycerides, and sugar addiction. 

To anyone trying to lose weight I say, forget counting calories. It’s about quality, not quantity. 

Myth 2: Weight loss comes down to cardio.

The metabolic boost you get after a short session of intense weight-lifting lasts up to 24-hours. By contrast, the boost from a long run lasts only a couple of hours. Spending hours on the spin bike might feel great and be an important balance in a sedentary lifestyle, but cardio doesn't equal weight loss. 

In fact, for people who are stressed out all the time, too much cardio might be perpetuating that state and pushing their bodies to hold on to every calorie like it’s the last one it will ever see. 

So, while cardio can be awesome, I recommend also finding a regular form of exercise like yoga, which is about unwinding and focus and gives the body a chance to come out of stress-mode. I also recommend lifting weights, which builds muscle, bone, and actually boosts your metabolism. For many people, adding in yoga and strength-training and cutting back on cardio tips the scale in the right direction. 

Myth 3: To lose weight, you're gonna have to starve.

OK, yes, if you eat almost nothing, you'll lose weight. But most people can’t sustain that and they yo-yo, eventually becoming so tired from relying on adrenal hormones like cortisol for energy, that the fatigue becomes too much and they over-eat to compensate. 

Healthy-skinny people eat real food in real quantities. They eat nutritious foods like whole fruits and veggies, plant-based fats, and lean protein, and they avoid the processed sugar and chemical crap that's widely available in our grocery stores. 

Myth 4: Fat makes you fat.

Wrong! Fat doesn’t make you fat. Sugar makes you fat. 

Fat tastes great for a reason. Mono- and poly-unsaturated fats are critical for your body to function. These fats are the building blocks of your brain and all of your cell membranes, and certain kinds of fat, like Omega-3 fatty acids, keep inflammation down. 

It’s actually the processed foods filled with refined sugars and grains that are absorbed quickly and stored quickly, which lead to a cascade of inflammation and ultimately to more fat storage. 

Myth 5: Weight loss is about sticking to a plan.

I can’t tell you how many patients and friends I’ve seen grow weary of maintaining their constant vigilance over weight. The stress and self-loathing that comes with it is too much to bear. And strangely, when they do let go — when they start eating with nourishment as their goal, and start exercising to feel good, rather than to exhaust themselves — the pounds actually disappear. It may sound counterintuitive, but it’s a much freer way to live life. 

So if these are they myths, what is weight loss really about? 

 

1. Eat, real, whole, unprocessed, unrefined foods that don’t cause inflammation.

It's simple: This includes as many fruits and vegetables as possible, moderate amounts whole grains, significant amounts of healthy fats, and some lean, grass-fed, free-range, hormone/antibiotic-free meat and eggs. 

2. Avoid sugar and refined carbs.

Sugars and refined carbs are the drivers of inflammation, weight gain, diabetes, and dementia. If you want to lose weight, have more energy, and slow the aging process, cut them out of your life as much as possible. 

3. Detox regularly.

The most important things from which to detox are booze, restaurant food, processed food, and for many people, foods like gluten and dairy (to which they may be sensitive). I recommend doing a 10-day detox four times a year to reset your system, keep you on track, and reduce inflammation. 

4. Find amusement and enthusiasm on a regular basis

When we operate from a place of seriousness and fear, our creations reflect that energy. When we operate from a place of ease and amusement in the moment, and genuine enthusiasm for what comes next, our lives reflect that much more positive and expansive energy. 

When you think about creating the body you want, ask yourself how you'll feel when you have it. For me, one of the dancers in Pharell’s Happy video comes to mind! Once you feel it, sit with that feeling for a minute, and move forward from there. 

Source: MindBodyGreen