Weight loss and nutrition: why diet plans DON'T work...

Despite being renowned for reinforcing rebellion (and a raised risk of weight gain), diet plans continue to resemble one of our favoured slimming solutions for fighting the flab.  

 In order to emphasise why these dictative plans don't work, here are three reasons why this mainstream weight loss method is responsible for forcing dieters to resort back to their unhealthy eating habits and/or pile on the pounds...

 1. They fail to acknowledge appetite.
Although appetite differs on a daily basis, diet plans frequently fail to take this fundamental fact into consideration by dictating when we eat - a demand that can not only have detrimental consequences for our dress size as we feel forced to feed ourselves unnecessary nutrition at specific times, but shatter our self-esteem and self-efficacy (attributes that play a predominant part in successful slimming) when we succumb to scoffing a food source/s that isn't part of our plan's rigorous eating regime.

 2. They teach us to shun hunger and satiety signals. 
Despite many diet plans promising to prevent us from piling on the pounds, their rigid eating rules regularly reinforce the belief that we 'have' to feast on (and finish!) the foods and fluids in our plan in order to successfully shrink our silhouettes - an action that often leaves us eating in the absence of physiological hunger, shunning our natural hunger and satiety signals and (in some cases) failing to create the caloric deficit that's essential for the effective elimination of excess weight.

 3. They frequently demand that we feast on unfavourable foods.
Aside from dictating when we eat, many mainstream diet plans also dictate what we eat in the form of the foods and fluids that they deem 'healthy' - this frequently includes insufficient snacks and meals (think the soups and seeds that fail to stimulate our senses and satisfy our stomachs), unfavourable fluids (we're talking the green gunk and so-called 'superfood' smoothies that are full of free sugars) and/or complex cuisine that the average dieter doesn't have time to consistently create from scratch. 

 Final thought: although more dedicated dieters may have the determination to pursue a diet plan, it's impossible to sustain such a strategic slimming solution for life - particularly as this specific solution fails to teach us how to form healthier eating habits, rebuild a healthy relationship with food and address the underlying reason/s why we eat and overeat (etc!).

 www.twitter.com/celerylips

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