Why Do Most Diets Fail?

Chances are, you fall into the roughly 50% of other Americans who have dieted. At some point in your life, you’ve tried, and consequently failed. You have a wedding coming up. A fitness goal. Someone made a comment. And maybe you’ve been successful- but it hasn’t endured. This raises one of the most common questions in fitness: why do most diets fail?

Before we get into the weeds, a quick disclaimer: I have tried almost every diet. If you know me personally, sometimes I’m “big”. Other times I’m “small” (er). In a weird way, this may give me much more expertise than someone who is inherently lean and has never dieted. I have the experiential learning, so here it is:

The two main reasons diets fail are:

1. Misinformation

2. They only check 1/3 boxes
   

Reason #1 Most Diets Fail: Misinformation

I will try to refrain from my soap box. You have been completely failed. If you are over the age of 30, you’ve experienced 4 different food pyramids. Your trainers and fitness friends have fallen for the latest fad. Your school lunches and your maturity with food has been the exact opposite of what is right.

How often have you heard that fat is bad. Or to watch your salt intake. Or that red meat causes cancer! God forbid you eat a piece of bread or pasta. If we listened to every piece of information, our diets would consist of lettuce (not romaine of course- E. coli!), with a side of ultra-filtered pH water out of a glass container (because plastics!) and one bite of an organic date (that you spent $14.99 on at WholeFoods) for dessert.

I deem the above as misinformation, but it’d be remiss to not also point out that information overload also exists. There is so much stuff out there, how are we supposed to know what is accurate?

Food education is so poor and over-complicated in our country, we don’t stand a chance. But don’t worry, there’s hope.

Oh last thing- stop listening to monickers like “breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” or “everything in moderation”. If I eat a chocolate chip cookie I gain 5 pounds overnight. So much for moderation!

Reason #2 Most Diets Fail: Only Checking 1 Box

Think of all the diets you’ve heard of: Paleo, Atkins, Weight Watchers, Intermittent Fasting, etc.

Now let’s identify the three types of diets (the boxes).

1. Calorie Restriction

2. Food Type Restriction

3. Timing Restriction

Making sense now? Most of the above diets check one of these boxes.

For example, Intermittent Fasting. This is clearly a timing restriction diet. The most common form is eating during an 8 hour window, and fasting the other 16. Sounds easy enough!

Sure- but what happens when in those 8 hours you consume a 16 oz. steak, whole pizza, some chips, and a cookie. You have successfully eaten within a window, but you have also eaten like a damn sumo wrestler, and consumed way too many calories. And then we wonder why the scale doesn’t budge!

And now for a quick moment of vulnerability. A few years ago I did the keto diet, and was probably the fattest I’ve ever been. I had the nicest girlfriend ever at the time, and she never made a comment. I would wake up, eat a ribeye. For lunch I’d have chicken or salmon, or another type of protein. I’d snack on nuts all day. And for dinner I’d have another ribeye. I’d then have some keto ice cream or whatever fat bomb snack at the time.

I had a friend take the most unflattering picture that exists of me (as I was chowing down a ribeye nonetheless). And from that moment on, I started wondering why.

I was eating 200-250 g of fat! That, alone, is over 2,000 calories. That’s also not taking into account any calories from protein or carbohydrate. Multiply that by 2, and that’s probably how many total calories I was eating, per day.

Lesson learned.

But there’s hope. Say you want to do keto, great! Just add one of the other boxes. Maybe eat keto but eat in an 8-10 hour window. Or gauge your total calories and make sure you're not going overboard. It will work, you just need to add one more box, and one more element to your “diet”.

The most successful and sustainable diets are those that check 2/3 boxes, not 1.

Trust me when I tell you, most diet fads are designed for you to fail. If the fad didn’t keep you fat, they wouldn’t make any profit. So if you want to do keto, buy all the snacks. But limit your damn calories too, and you won’t have to buy as many. The keto companies will be just fine.

Wishing you much happiness and health,

Coach Bender