I was in the dentist office the other day and overheard a couple of the ladies chit-chatting about a local sweet shop here in town.
They went on about the deliciousness of the treats and even offered to go pick some up during their lunch break.
At the end of the conversation she says “Oh wait, aren’t you still doing keto though?”
The other responds, “Yeah, I’m getting back to it this week hopefully, but I’ve got my husband’s company dinner tonight and a family get together this weekend, so we’ll see.”
From there, the lady offering to bring the treats back says, “Yeah, I’m going to get back on keto next week hopefully.”
As I sat there getting my root canal drilled into, the nutrition coach in me wanted to pipe up, but I know how it can come off giving unsolicited advice so I sat there with my mouth closed (or being drilled into nonetheless) and just listened.
It wasn’t hard to tell they were convinced they “needed” to follow a low carb approach to achieve their fat loss goals.
But in reality, keto was what was stopping them from making any progress in the first place.
They acted like they had failed every time they ate something that wasn’t low carb or had any sugar in it. This feeling of failure would turn into more convenient excuses:
-the next dinner they need to attend
-the busyness of taking care of the kids
-the inconvenience of a stressful order at a restaurant
and so on.
There’s always a new, better, faster approach to weight loss. Right now the fad seems to be Keto.
Before that it was Paleo, Weight Watchers, Atkins, etc.
Let me be clear:
I have NO problems with any of these diets, they have worked for many people and I even use certain aspects of these diets with my clients at times.
With that said… there is a problem with trying to follow keto, or any other fad type diet, before asking yourself 3 main questions to figure out what is going to be the most sustainable approach for you first –
Lets get into it..
-
Do you see yourself being able to eat like this for life?
The truth?
Anybody can lose weight from restrictive low calorie eating.
The problem comes when you “finish” the diet. There’s a startling stat showing 85-90% of people who lose a considerable amount of weight end up weighing more than they did when beginning the diet within the next 3 years.
Instead of looking at a diet as a particular time period, or finding the fastest approach, look at it at as a lifestyle change.
Sounds scary… but as you learn to look at a food from an energy perspective instead of a restrictive perspective, it can be done quite easily.
You can incorporate ALL foods and still make great progress with a little knowledge. More on this at the end…
2. Will you have to sacrifice meals with family, friends, and/or coworkers regularly?
Any serious weight loss plan will come with some sacrifice. Let’s face it, the reason we get to a place where we need to lose weight is because we weren’t sacrificing enough in the first place.
But at the same time, if you can’t ever go out for a meal or enjoy a family get together because it doesn’t fit your diet, it’s going to lead to a lot of excuses and inconsistency, which will make for a hard time progressing. Or worse, you’ll be left without being able to enjoy some of the best parts of life – family and friends.
Our culture surrounds food. So making sure your diet has enough flexibility is crucial to long term success.
3. Does this style of diet help you control cravings, or worse, binges?
Most of us have done it…
On Friday night we mess up our diet, which leads to the excuse of Saturday, and then Sunday too.
After a little sugar or something deemed “unhealthy,” it’s easy to automatically say, “Well I messed up today, might as well just wait until Monday to get started again.”
Before you know it, the whole weekend is blown and you’re up 5-10 lbs. If the foods you’re diet plan allows don’t include a little of everything you enjoy, chances are you’re cravings are going to sky rocket.
The only thing you’ll be thinking about after a couple weeks are the foods you’re telling yourself you can’t have.
Which ultimately leads to giving in at some point.
To finish off –
We all have different bodies, taste buds, goals, values, etc.
Which is why we shouldn’t all jump on board to a single dieting approach just because it worked for somebody else.
I urge you to strongly consider these questions before starting any diet. If it’s not a plan you feel you can stick to in the long term, it’s not a plan that’s going to serve you long term.
And that’s extremely important.
If you’re serious about weight loss and making a lasting change, learn the principles as to what drives fat loss and maintaining a body composition in the first place.
It’s not low carb, low fat, or high protein.
It ultimately comes down to the law of thermodynamics – energy in vs energy out.
Any successful diet has this one thing in common.
If Keto, Paleo, Weight Watchers, IIFYM, Vegan, Atkins, or any other plan out there helps you adhere to that one rule, you will succeed.
So long as you can stick to it over the long run.
If you’d like to see a way where you don’t have to:
-restrict certain food groups
-stay away from carbs
-or eat 5-6 small meals per day
you can check out A Leaner Life below and be walked through the simple process of setting up your own individualized diet that works for you – 100% Free.
Learn to eat with no food restrictions for easier adherence and consistency.
Discover how much you should be eating each day individualized to your your activity level, lifestyle, and goals.
Figure out how to avoid crash dieting on dangerously low calories to maintain a healthy metabolism and control cravings and binges.
Most importantly – understand how to create long term success instead of only frustrating short term success and beat this whole weight loss thing once and for all.
Also, I’ve added a bonus at the end of 14 high protein, low calorie delicious meals including french toast, pancakes, our famous taco salad, cheeseburgers, and more so that you have no questions on easy to make, tasty meals that’ll fit into your daily diet.
Our clients use these exact meals each week in their busy lives to make things simple, easy, and delicious all while achieving their fat loss goals consistently.
As I mentioned, this resource is 100% free to help you start reaching your goals without all the restriction so that fat loss lasts a lifetime instead of just a short time.
Download A Leaner Life instantly by putting your info below and start getting leaner now instead of later.