The endless promises and guarantees that you just need to follow a special miracle diet and you will lose weight quickly and permanently – and the “beach body” (bikini figure) will be yours in no time. Do these sound familiar to you? Fad diets come and go, changing from season to season, even month to month, but anyone with a little bit of an eye can notice that none of them remain popular for long. The main reason for this is that practically all of them provide terrible advice that cannot be followed in the long term. We have collected the 5 worst of them!
1. “Only one thing matters: never eat this.”
A diet that restricts the consumption of any macronutrient is never going to end well. Your body needs three essential macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein, and fat) to function properly. Carbohydrates are used by your body as energy for everyday activities. Fats—healthy fats, to be precise —are essential for many of your body’s functions . Protein, among other things, is the building block of muscle and you need it to repair and rebuild tissues on a daily basis.
Low-fat or low-carb diets can be helpful for certain health conditions, but for weight loss, it’s better to choose a more sustainable lifestyle that gives you enough energy and strength to get through each day, rather than depleting your reserves. Eating a balanced diet that includes all the quality macronutrients is one of the first steps on the path to successful weight loss.
2. “Just use this miracle cure and you will lose weight.”
It’s painful to hear, but it’s the truth: there is no magic pill that can melt away your excess pounds in minutes. Anyone who offers you a pill that will solve all your weight problems is peddling lies and pocketing a hefty profit by exploiting your individual goals – which they can’t and don’t want to help you achieve.
Let’s stay grounded in reality: long-term weight control requires moderation, awareness, and a nutrient-rich diet that provides energy for an active lifestyle. Exercise and a healthy diet go hand in hand if you want to maintain an optimal body weight. The right nutritional supplement or fat burner can enhance and help with all of these effects , but it can never replace them.
3. “You’ve still got time, you can lose up to 10 kilos in 5 days!”
Sounds great, right? While it’s not impossible to achieve, whether through fasting or drastic calorie reduction, the harsh reality is that such a diet is not sustainable, meaning that as soon as you go back to your old routine, the extra weight is almost guaranteed to find its way back to your waistline.
Long-term, sustainable weight control requires a lifestyle change that slowly and gradually eliminates unhealthy, fattening foods and replaces them with nutritious, lower-calorie foods. Keep in mind that this won’t happen overnight, but small changes last a lifetime and over time, following the principle of “a lot of small things add up to a lot”, will lead you to success.
4. “Count every calorie/macronutrient.”
Not all calories are created equal, and to be truly healthy inside and out, it’s important to feed your body with foods rich in micronutrients—it’s not enough to just focus on calorie count.
Let’s take an example: there’s a bag of potato chips that has exactly the same number of calories as a slice of whole-grain bread topped with sliced avocado, fresh dill, and lemon juice. Which will nourish your body better? You could eat the bag of chips or avocado toast (which contains whole grains, B vitamins, and good fats). There are undoubtedly days when you need to indulge in chips. Most days, you’ll probably opt for avocado toast.
To maintain a healthy weight long-term, look at the nutritional content of foods before you worry about calories. Most plant-based foods (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and seeds) are excellent choices because they are naturally rich in nutrients.
5. “It doesn’t matter what you eat if you follow this workout plan.”
Don’t get me wrong, exercise is a very important part of losing weight and of course, living a healthy lifestyle. But just because you went for a morning run or worked out at the gym doesn’t give you permission to eat anything afterwards. Of course, just as a morning workout doesn’t mean your body needs a whole cake for dessert, it also doesn’t mean you have to track and write down every single calorie you burn.
After you’ve worked your body hard in a personal or group workout, you need to provide it with nutrients that will help it recharge, repair, and rebuild itself. What’s a healthy, nutritious, yet delicious choice? For example, a high-protein smoothie: choose your favorite protein powder , throw in some of your favorite fruits and vegetables, blend it, and you’re done!
Basically, there is no diet that is ideal and equally effective for everyone in the world. Every person is different, so everyone needs to adapt their lifestyle to their individual goals, abilities, and opportunities. Accordingly, it is worth starting with the basics, such as increasing your vegetable and fruit consumption, eating more consciously, exercising more, and finding the right balance.
