You are doing a certain diet and you feel that it does not work. Is it a subjective perception or a reality? How to remedy it? The Nutrition experts consulted by CuídatePlus help us understand this situation and learn how to lose weight in a healthy way.
As a starting point, Rubén Bravo, nutrition expert and spokesperson for the European Institute of Medical Obesity (IMEO) , mentioned six factors as responsible for the failure of a diet :
- Choose an express, miracle or unbalanced diet.
- That is not compatible with social life.
- Make it drab.
- That requires too much willpower.
- That does not contemplate a phase of maintenance of the healthy weight.
“A diet fails since you decide to do it. The concept of diet, as we understand it now, involves eating in a way for a limited period of time. With expiration date. You do not modify your diet so that it becomes healthier and maintains it all the time ”, says Marta Rincón, vocal of communication of the Professional College of Dietitians-Nutritionists of Castilla y León (Codinucyl) .
The expert affirms that we all diet. “Dietitians-nutritionists understand the concept ‘diet’ as the pattern of food that each subject has. Each person follows a different diet according to food, ways of cooking, environment in which they live, values, etc. Achieving good nutritional habits takes time , is not achieved overnight, and cannot be fixed with a magical combination of foods . Many factors are involved in the process of change that affect health, and what it is about is improving it through food and nutrition, far beyond aesthetic motivations. ”
When is it objectively considered not to work?
“Doesn’t it work for whom?” Asks Rincón, stating that here, too, “many factors come into play, such as the patient’s expectations, motivation, and goals . Each subject has different requirements and needs. In order to assess the entire process in which nutrition is involved, the dietitian-nutritionist (who is the expert professional) is in charge of detecting which strategy works best for each one objectively ”.
In Bravo’s words, it is important to make an evaluation during and after the diet, “because there are plans that manage to make their followers lose weight, but later, returning to a healthy lifestyle, they generate a rebound effect. A diet does not work when , even doing it one hundred percent, it is not possible to reduce the percentage of body fat , which in many cases is not related to weight, strictly speaking. ”
Is it possible that it will work and, at some point, stop working?
“Many people often say that they have stagnated . Usually, what usually happens in most cases is that when losing a large part of the kilos, the followers tend to look much better and begin not to follow the plan one hundred percent, “explains Bravo. “Only in rare cases due to metabolic problems, or in people who have followed a multitude of diets throughout their lives, it may happen that the mechanisms activated by the ‘sparing genes’ make it difficult at any given time to continue losing more weight.”
Diet is an eating pattern. For this reason, Rincón recalls that “it does not always have to be the same. The requirements and needs of a female athlete who has just become pregnant are not the same as those of that same woman when she is training to run a marathon . ”
Tips when the diet does not work
The IMEO spokesperson advises to take the following measures when the diet does not work:
- Check if the plan is being followed correctly, making a daily record of the food eaten.
- Change your weight loss plan.
- Intensify or include physical activity.
- Evaluate possible hormonal problems, constipationor fluid retention .
For Rincón, the recommendation is unique: “Get advice from a dietitian-nutritionist.”
What about the yo-yo effect?
The yo-yo effect occurs when the dietary changes are over and you return to your old habits. “You go back to the starting box; you haven’t learned anything Here what has not worked is the nutritional strategy because it has not managed to acquire good healthy lifestyle habits that are maintained over time, ”says the Codinucyl communication spokesperson.
“If we are following a balanced plan, in no case should a rebound effect appear, unless we change good habits for bad, which is what usually happens in most cases. We choose a plan to lose weight, we reach our goal and we return to the bad habits that led us to being overweight, ”adds the Imeo spokesperson.
Psychological impact
On many occasions, Bravo explains, “the fact that a diet does not work causes demotivation and can strengthen binge episodes , leading to a cycle of feeling of failure and guilt.”
“ Food and emotions go hand in hand. Here again expectations, motivation and goals come into play. Just as we each eat differently, we also feel differently. This is the field of a specialist in psychonutrition, which is the one that must assess the psychological impact of food on each one, ”concludes Rincón.
