“Diets cause weight gain.”
“Diets cause food obsession and eating disorders.”
“Diets blind you to your body’s intuitive eating signals.”
You can find all kinds of books, articles, and websites that expound on these topics, and I’m not going to waste your time going into detail on their points of view.
I can’t deny that dieting gets a bad rap. And most kinds of dieting thoroughly deserve it.
Hell, a supposed health coach in an online forum told me yesterday that calorie counting was “soul crushing” and “ridiculous.” I suggested that on the contrary, it was merely a tool that can be used well or badly . . . and that if we have a problem with it, maybe we’ve brought along our own baggage.
That wasn’t a popular idea. I was roundly shouted down by those who believe that “intuition” alone ought to be enough to bring about our ideal weight. (Sure, go for it: I feel sorry for your clients, who may waste a couple of years figuring out that it’s usually not enough.)
Dieting is just a tool
Here’s the point: dieting (like its cousin calorie-counting) is just a tool.
There are good tools and very, very bad tools in this toolbox.
But before we get more specific, let’s clarify the term. Let’s see “dieting” for what it is: merely a food plan, a way of eating. In other words, let’s strip away some of the baggage.
I bitch and moan about bad diets all the time, not because I enjoy bitching and moaning (oh, OK—just a little) but because I see the damage bad diets cause women. I bitch and moan about bad diets all the time, not because I enjoy bitching and moaning (oh, OK—just a little) but because I see the damage bad diets cause women.
Every time I offer a free webinar (more on that subject later) I talk about the dangers of bad diets. And while I was writing this, I realized that you, esteemed reader and listener, might assume that I’m speaking only of extreme and obviously crazy diets.
I’ve gone on and on about the dangers of the hCG diet, which is nothing more than slow starvation. I’ve talked about how intermittent fasting can slow your metabolism and screw up your appetite-regulating hormones.
But maybe you’re thinking that the average women’s magazine diet that recommends, say, 1,300 to 1,500 calories a day is surely immune from that sort of criticism.
Not.
Not at ALL.
Dangers of the average bad diet
The average diet—yes, even the average diet that a health expert thinks is swell—often provides too few calories to
- protect your muscle mass (and although you may think you don’t care about this, darling, you do)
- prevent undue hunger
- sustain an effective exercise program and
- prevent your metabolic rate—the amount of energy you need daily—from slowing down.
Of course, the existence of bad diets hints that perhaps there’s such a thing as a good diet, a safe and healthy diet, doesn’t it?
In fact, there is. That’s one of the things I teach.
We’ve been conditioned to believe that dieting—that is, choosing a food plan specifically for fat loss—has to mean weeks or months of hideous deprivation, hunger, and sacrifice.
It doesn’t. Not if we jettison the notion that makes so many diets dangerous: the idea that cutting more calories is the solution to effective fat loss.
Here’s what you might not realize: You might think cutting 500 calories a day is perfectly reasonable and not the least bit dangerous.
That’s just a pound a week. Sounds sensible, right?
Most diets don’t even consider your individual energy needs
But is a 500-calorie cut per day safe?
That depends on you and your specific energy needs.
- What’s your total daily need for calories?
- What percentage of a cut would 500 calories represent for you?
- Is that percentage too much or too little for you?
How to find out
Interested?
Well, this is one of the topics I’m going to teach during my next free online training session, set for 7 p.m. Eastern time (U.S.) on Wednesday, June 12.
In fact, if you’re live on the webinar with me, I’m going to walk you step by step through an easy, fast, and accurate way to figure out the right number of calories for you to cut.
My goal is to help you understand exactly how to choose the right level of calorie cutting for safe and healthy fat loss . . . so you don’t slow your metabolism, you don’t feel ravenous, and you can actually stick to the plan.
That’s not the only subject I’ll be covering, but I’ll tell you more in my next blog post.
In the meantime, if you’re dieting now or ever will be, you need this training.
I’ll record the session, so if you have a commitment at that time and date, sign up anyway.
But if you can make it live, that’s best. As I said, I’ll be walking you through the process of implementing one of my best fat-loss strategies . . . and everyone live on the webinar with me will receive a valuable gift.
Save your spot now!
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