Fad diets have always been around: in 1028 William the Conqueror subsisted on a liquid diet consisting of almost only alcohol in order to be able to ride his horse. While we generally know not to just drink booze to lose weight, the idea that weight loss can be achieved very quickly and easily by just adapting to a new diet remains.
Although many of these fad diets’ principles may be true, they often require a strict set of criteria for an individual to follow, which can do more harm than good and usually isn’t sustainable.
The common thread across fad diets is to stop eating certain foods or food groups in order to be “healthier.” In reality, they all work the same way: by reducing total caloric intake. The problem is that while you may lose weight for some time, most individuals become unmotivated to keep a strict diet for an extended period of time. Even more so, if the diet requires a large calorie restriction, it can be difficult to stick to it. And can even make you so ravenously hungry which can lead to binge eating.
Everyone is different and the method one person loses weight with may not work for another individual – comparing your reality to someone else’s fad diet ‘success’ can be demotivating. It’s easy for us to quickly become lost in trying to chase the same results.
So instead, here’s a list of five reasons you should forget the fad diets if you’re trying to lose weight.
1. An increased risk of nutritional deficiencies
Since many fad diets rely on cutting out entire food groups, there is a good chance that many important nutrients are also being cut. Ever heard of the keto diet where carbohydrates are the ‘bad guys’ and are effectively removed from all meals? Not a good idea – carbs are the body’s number one source of quick-access energy. Without them, your body can’t create energy when it’s needed most. Instead, your body resorts to other sources of energy that take longer to access (like muscle fibres), causing issues (like a loss of strength, fatigue and a reduction in your metabolic rate). There are also very important nutrients that are found in carbohydrate rich foods (B vitamins like folate and thiamine). Your brain and body needs these nutrients, don’t accidentally starve them!
2. You could regain lost weight through yo-yo dieting effects
The whole point of these fad diets is to restrict – it’s an attempt to make food less enjoyable, by extension giving you more control over eating. It’s not so satisfying, so you won’t do it as much. This “all or nothing” mindset and it often leads to yo-yo dieting. In case you haven’t heard the term, it’s when an individual goes on and off of a diet and has major fluctuations in weight in a yo-yo, down-and-up fashion. Going all in on a diet that requires you to be highly restrictive makes it very unsustainable. After all, we can’t live our entire life avoiding whole food groups. Most importantly, there is limited long term research on whether diets like Atkins or Keto are actually effective.
3. Eating isn’t enjoyable
Food is so much more than a means of nourishing your body! Food is a huge part of culture and tradition, and it can be a cornerstone for social interaction. There is no denying it: food nourishes our body, mind, and soul. Because of this, it’s damaging and unfortunate to view eating as just a task that we do for survival. Fad diets often take away many of the foods that we enjoy and very rarely teach us how to incorporate the foods that we love into our long term healthy eating habits. They can also demonise the foods that we grew up with and are a part of our heritage. Fad diets are a killjoy at best and are a mental health disease trigger at worst.
4. They can damage our mental health
Following fad diets can significantly affect our mental health journey when it comes to weight loss. For example, if a person was strictly following a keto diet but failed to cut out carbohydrates because of their love of pizza, they may feel a sense of guilt and shame for doing so. They might even become anxious about ‘falling off the wagon’ or ‘failing’ at their diet. The keto diet is notorious for having wild side effects when you start it up, such as a keto flu, and a general lack of energy. “Slip-ups” can often leave a person feeling unmotivated and there are more chances that the person will lose motivation. And this is just touching on folks that don’t have a history of eating disorders. Diets, our weight and the societal pressure to be skinny can do enormous harm on our mental health. Be gentle on yourself.
5. They don’t help your healthy eating habits long term
When we lose weight, the amount of calories we can consume to maintain our new lower weight will often be lower. This means that when we hit our goal weight, we should still be striving to maintain a healthy diet at a new lower normal. Fad diets do not teach individuals how to eat the foods they love and still maintain a healthy diet after they’ve achieved that goal weight. The whole premise of a fad diet is to just lose weight – well, what happens after that? Do you just live off of cabbage soup or keto for the rest of your life? Navigating this is difficult, and most individuals don’t end up being successful in maintaining their weight, leading to that frustrating yo-yo dieting experience. By working on a larger, more holistic and sustainable plan that incorporates your life and your biology means you’re much more likely not only to hit your goal weight, but then have long term healthy habits built. That’ll help keep the weight you just lost off for good.
Our reco: talk to a dietitian and be introspective about what is realistic for you.
Rather than following a fad diet, the best option is to consult a registered dietitian, to create a dietary plan that fits with your life and body. Dietitian are often one of the most misunderstood health professions – many think that all they can do is make meal plans and provide nutrition knowledge in the form of education. This is simply untrue!
Dietitians are highly trained in areas that pertain to food choices like psychology, sociology, physiology. They are also well equipped to help with counselling techniques like motivational interviewing and CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy). Dietitians understand that individuals are different and that following a mainstream diet and even a meal plan are not long-term sustainable options.
In fact, a dietitian’s true power is to help you build your own skills, knowledge, and confidence and create a health diet specific to you: a lifestyle versus diet approach. And, they’re often covered in your insurance benefits!
If a dietitian is not an option for you, Canada’s Food Guide is a great place to start your own knowledge building.
Developing a holistic understanding of nutrition, and not succumbing to the latest fad diet, is essential to long term weight management. This way, you can enjoy eating, guilt free, while still achieving and maintaining weight loss.
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