Reasons Why My Last Diet May Have Failed
Written by Sky Taylor, Diet Bites
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Diet Failure
Those are such sad words, so let's put away those tissue boxes and get to a higher, happier place involving three words: Weight Loss Success!
In order to reach this lofty, wondrous spot that rests at the end of the Old Diet Trail, we must first figure out why your last diet failed. Here is our short list of situations and incidents that are commonly associated with Diet Failure. Do any ring a bell with your Diet Past?
Did your last diet plan fail because it was too deficient in calories?
To most, calories equal a number contained in the foods and beverages consumed in the daily diet. In actuality, calories equal energy. Knowing the number of calories it takes to support the body's recommended weight and pairing that knowledge with the foods consumed in the daily diet can assist in weight loss, and that oh-so-important Weight Management.
But input too little calories in the daily diet and the body will suffer in multiple ways, basically dooming a diet plan from the get-go. Rather than responding with grand weight loss, the body instead resists and slowly meters energy, pulling from the fat cells at a slow pace when daily energy calories aren't sufficient. It's like taking candy from an adult - a slow and tedious process with little, if any progress. Eventually, the body will start to break down as vital organs are no longer to efficiently function.
A great weight loss plan sets the number of calories consumed per day as the recommended calories needed to maintain the body's goal weight. For example:
Dieter Meg is 100 pounds over her recommended weight. Her calorie (energy) needs for her recommended weight are 1,750 calories per day. Rather than go on an extensive weight loss plan that may prove grueling and stressful, Dieter Meg decides to set her daily calorie consumption at 1,750 calories. After all, if she wants to maintain her weight, this is the number of calories that she will need to eat from here on out. The good news is that when Meg incorporates activity and exercise into her daily schedule, she can consume a few more calories.
How many daily calories does your body require to reach and permanently maintain its recommended weight? Click here to determine.
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Did your last method fail because it was boring?
Our personal tastes are established over time. I know of individuals who can't dine out because they find the food on the menus too salty. To other successful dieters, they will say that they can't eat butter or other more fatty items because they feel like they are eating a block of pure fat (and that would be accurate where margarine and butter are concerned). Other successful dieters find that they no longer enjoy those sweet-sweets from their Diet Past.
In all three of these areas - salt, fat, and sugar, our personal tastes and preferences were indeed established over time. And unfortunately, the more salt, fat and sugar that we embrace in our diets, the more addicted that we become. And when they suddenly vanish from our daily diet, we may panic. Foods suddenly hit rock-bottom in regards to taste and flavor. They suddenly taste bland. They suddenly taste boring. They suddenly taste ugly, wretched and quite cardboard-ish. For example:
Verna leaves home for college. Her mom was always a health-wise cook, taking care with salt, fat and sweets. In fact, Verna remembers that dessert usually consisted of a crystal bowl filled with some form of sliced fresh fruit topped with a shot of lightly sweetened, homemade whipped cream. When the family dined out, great care was taken in choosing health-wise, lower calorie, lower fat, and lower sodium offerings that almost-always ended up resulting in menu selections that included a tiny heart resting next to the entree description.
With Verna's newfound Diet Freedom, she was looking forward to meeting friends at the local hole-in-the-wall restaurant which was famous in the area for its tasty Mexican food. And she always enjoyed a good Mexican meal. Her mom's tacos were superb, tucked tightly with extra-lean ground beef, fresh lettuce, chopped tomato, chopped onion and topped-off with low fat grated cheese. My, she was suddenly missing home.
When Verna met her friends at the restaurant, she opted to enjoy the cheese enchiladas - as recommended by her group of new friends. And oh wow - did they look delicious when they arrived at the table - steam shooting off the top of the plate! Verna immediately dived in, and immediately halted. They tasted as if someone had dumped the salt shaker onto them. Maybe there had been an accident in the kitchen? But no one else at the table seemed to notice, even when she mentioned such. And when the waiter replaced her order based on a likely mistake in the kitchen, she was met with that same too-much-salt flavor yet again.
In summary, Verna wasn't used to an excessive - as well as an unhealthy amount of sodium in her daily diet. Sodium Overload.
It takes time to adjust to almost any weight loss plan because most contain less fat to cut calories, as well as less salt to discourage false water retention which not only adds pounds to the weight scales, but also causes a burden on the circulatory system. In individuals who have reached an upper tier height where salt intake is concerned, any diet plan is going to fall flat where taste is concerned. Foods will taste boring and uninteresting. So now is the time to drag out that trusty spice rack to create new flavors that will make any new diet plan super-zippy! And before long, your newly adapted taste buds will be asking, "Yum! What is this delicious concoction that I'm warming up to? My oh my, surely this can't be a plain-jane potato? Why, Jane, I never knew you tasted so delicious, naked."
Did your last method fail because it focused on one or two foods, or a particular food group?
What starts out as entertaining can quickly become a pain in the gut. If the 'super duper grapefruit' is the star of the diet plan, after a handful of days the dieter is likely to squeeze the remaining grapefruits in his house to smithereens before sending them through the disposal. Sad, but so.
If the Diet Poison is a particular food group, doing without those white-food-favs may be a party at the beginning of the diet plan, but after a few days or weeks, the dieter may discover that he'd rather enjoy white foods rather than tighty-whities.
In summary, what starts out as a fun thing can suddenly go bad when interest fades and the ghosts (all decked-out in more white) of Diet Past beckon from the distance.
Did your last plan fail because you took ill?
A more common scenario than most might think. Dieting does indeed put the body at risk when the individual approaches weight loss in an unsafe, unwise manner. While losing weight quickly is generally a common goal, doing such while ill can do permanent damage to the body.
Did your last plan fail because it was too difficult?
Too much exercise, too little food, too fast, too hard - and it all collides at the corner of Fifth & Dine when the dieter reaches their breaking point.
Lose those unwanted pounds - yes! But do such safely, wisely and choose a weight loss plan that is doable. Don't expect miracles, simply expect weight loss and all the great things that will bring about.
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