Why Diets Don't Work

What is a Diet?
Any nutrition program that involves counting calories, blocks or points; packaged meals; quick fix pills, unreasonable reduction of caloric intake; starving or depriving yourself in any way. Any nutrition program that is not clean, balanced, health enhancing, AND sustainable for the rest of your life. Examples: Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Phen-Fen, Atkins, Ornish, 12-week programs (e.g. Body for Life), and diet pills.

Reduce Stress Why Diets Don’t Work:
High protein/high fat/very low carbohydrate diets (e.g. Atkins, first phase) is designed to put your body to go into a state called ketosis. Ketone bodies are produced when the body does not have enough glucose (which comes from carbohydrates) to burn for fuel. The result is that the body burns protein and fat instead. Ketone bodies are acidic which has a diuretic effect on the body and draws on the body’s calcium supplies, which comes from your bones. Your body becomes dehydrated and you experience muscle loss, and can often experience mental fog and physical fatigue. Ingesting high quantities of fatty proteins can also, in the long term, result in increased risk of heart disease. The result is that your body loses water, lean muscle, and bone mass, but little fat. Your body composition does not typically improve—you do not become leaner Rather, you become a smaller version of your former self. The high levels of saturated fat in typical high protein diets eventually raise your cholesterol and significantly increase your risk of degenerative disease. This type of diet is sustainable for only a short period of time, and if it is sustained long term, it can be detrimental to your health.

High carbohydrate/low fat diets such as Pritikin or Ornish (because of their high carbohydrate content), may cause constant blood sugar issues and high insulin levels. High blood sugar and high insulin levels encourage fat storage and block all fat burning, increases hunger and cravings, increases fatigue, increases inflammation, and can increase risk of heart disease. Recent research shows that these apparently “heart healthy” diets, which are widely recommended to lower cholesterol, do not reduce risk of heart disease and are not effective in reducing body fat. Unbalanced calorie restricting diets (including Weight Watchers, cleansing fasts, and Jenny Craig), typically are not sustainable for the long term because you feel hungry and deprived. Also, the body responds as if it is in a famine and sets powerful survival responses into action causing your body to store as much fat as possible to survive. Your metabolism slows to a crawl; and because your body is constantly low on fuel, it over-produces cortisol, a powerful survival hormone, which breaks down muscle and bone, and encourages fat storage. The result: your body is geared to store fat rather than burn fat, you gain back the fat you lost plus more, and your body becomes more resistant to losing fat the next time you diet.. Over 40 years of research has shown that 98% of those who diet regain all the weight lost plus more after they go off the diet—rendering the $40-billon-a-year dieting business a failure. The key to long term success is to shift away from the traditional dieting mentality. Our sponsor, EnergyFirst, encourages this shift, focusing instead on health enhancing behaviors. We do not encourage calorie counting, weighing food, or the use of quick-fix pills. The best programs use a balanced lifestyle approach that you can sustain for the rest of your life.