Breaking News: There is No Perfect Diet
I’m being a little dramatic with the breaking news, but I feel like it needs to be shouted. THERE IS NO PERFECT DIET! I must have been living in a box, or maybe just working really hard and haven’t watched the TV in a while. It’s possible it’s both, but I’m leaning towards working really hard and don’t have too much spare time. But…who has heard or seen the show “My Diet is Better than Your Diet?” I believe that is the name of the show.
Yesterday was a pretty busy day-worked (created my first landing page), did a strength workout, ran the dogs, cooked, etc. Generally my go to shows are anything on the Food Network or HGTV. And that’s usually just when I’m cooking. Yesterday was a pretty complete day. One of those days where you really feel like you accomplished a lot. I decided to just spend an hour sitting on the coach and relaxing. Cue flipping channels and I come upon this show. It appears to be like the Biggest Loser: you have contestants, trainers, exercise sessions, nutrition sessions, etc. The difference comes in where the contestants are each following a different diet.
These include names like:
- The strong and sexy diet
- The hunter diet
- The superfood diet
I might have gotten those a bit off, but in reality, they look like they match a paleo diet/high protein, or lower carb but more veggies and protein diet. I’m sure I am being too simplistic. But you get what I mean.
So imagine you have each of the contestants, each on a different diet, each working with a trainer, each has a life story worthy of sharing on national TV, each vying to lose weight and win the show. And I don’t know this, but my guess is the person who loses the largest amount of weight or greatest percentage is the winner. Possibly winning a large sum of money?
Whats the problem with this program you say?
There are several things. I heard several trainers saying or implying incorrect information on nutrition. For example:
- Pasteurized food isn’t great for you. Really? I pretty sure the pasteurization process has saved countless lives and illnesses. Today people argue for raw milk and raw cheese. I’m sticking with the safer and healthier option.
- Sweating releases toxins. Not exactly. Sweating releases minerals like sodium (and water), which most be replenished with water/fluid and the food you eat. If you’re too dehydrated the kidneys may not work properly. So in a round about way you could argue that since the kidneys (and liver) are what detoxes our body, if the kidneys aren’t functioning, then yes, it can’t remove toxins.
But it’s less about the trainers spouting fad-laden things, and more about, each person is very different and different diet plans will effect people different. In order for a program like this to really work, you’d have to have the same person go on each diet for a few months, then gain the weight back, and go with the next diet. Or, they’d have to clone the person so that same person is doing each diet. That would be the only true way to say “which diet is the best.” Besides the fact that I don’t like the word diet, nutrition is an individual process. Not everything will work for everyone, or not everyone will feel great with a certain diet. On the other, I just read a study that said, just about anyone will lose weight on any diet (low carb, Paleo, vegan, etc) because they are all about restricting calories or a negative caloric intake. I can’t remember the study name now though. But true, anyone on a “diet” implies cutting calories. So whether it’s from Paleo or vegan, if you’re cutting calories, you will lose weight.
So if any diet can work for anyone, what’s the best nutrition plan to have? One that’s fit to your specific needs, based on your own body and how much you’re exercising. That’s why I created the Fueled and Focused software. Since diets aren’t sustainable, why not adopt an all around nutritious meal plan where you feel satisfied, eat delicious food, have no restrictions or deprivations and still achieve your weight and performance goals. It’s really that easy. It’s all about developing a new relationship with food and yourself. Learning portion control, learning what foods fit around exercise, learning the most nutritious foods for your body.
I love helping athletes achieve more through training and nutrition. I’d love for all people athletes and non-athletes to adopt a more balanced and well rounded way of eating. Personally my passion is athletes, so I’ll continue to focus in that area. I’m pretty sure I won’t be watching more of the TV show, but it would be interesting to see which diet they claim is the best diet. I believe they had a “no diet” option. I am guessing that person didn’t change their diet and just exercised. It would be interesting to see where they fall in the order of weight loss at the end. But again, its very different for each person, so they might lose more or less than someone else on the same plan.
If like me you’d like to stop the headaches and frustrations around fad diets/restrictive diets, check out my Fueled and Focused meal plan software. Just go to fueledandfocused.com and check it out. Let me know if you have any questions. I’m really excited to help people break free of the word diet and the negative implications around it-mainly restriction or deprivation.
Tweet
