Module 1: Why Most Diets Fail

If you’re here now, you’ve probably tried a few diets. These diets, most likely, haven’t led to the long-term health improvements you’ve been seeking.

This problem is so common, I’m devoting an entire lesson to it.

So many people go on diets. And so many people fail to get the results they want. Why?

I see two main reasons.

The first reason is simple. From a biochemical perspective, some nutritional strategies work better than others to promote sustainable loss, improve energy, reduce inflammation, etc.

In other words, different diets have different physiological effects. Let’s start there.

A calorie is not a calorie

It’s clear that certain ways of eating produce better results than others. Unless you believe that all nutrients have equal effects in the human body, this fact is undeniable.

Nonetheless, there’s a lot of confusion out there on this topic.

For instance, some “experts” claim it doesn’t matter what type of calories you eat, as long as you limit those calories. When it comes to weight loss, it doesn’t matter if you eat a 500 calorie salmon and kale salad, or a 500 calorie jumbo cookie.

Same calories, same result. This logic can be distilled into the platitude: A calorie is a calorie.

At first glance, it sounds credible. A calorie is how we measure the energy content of food, so shouldn’t we rely on this measure to determine how much energy is stored in our body after eating that food?

To answer, consider an interesting study published in 2003 in the Journal of Endocrinology and .(1) In this trial, women eating a ketogenic diet lost more weight than women eating a calorie-restricted, higher carb diet. The keto women weren’t calorie restricted, yet still lost more weight!

The point is, the human body is a complex machine. Different nutrients—even in equal caloric amounts—have different hormonal and metabolic effects. For example, eating 500 calories of bowtie pasta causes a large release of insulin—your fat storage hormone—from your pancreas. On the other hand, eating 500 calories of butter-soaked veggies will have a much smaller insulin impact.

We’ll talk more about insulin in later modules. This energy storage hormone is the key to ketosis. But for now, understand that—when it comes to weight, energy levels, and most other health metrics—a calorie is not a calorie.

What about calorie restriction?

Ever watched the Biggest Loser? By the end of the show, the contestants have usually dropped significant pounds.

The Biggest Loser diet, however, is nothing revolutionary. It follows a widely-subscribed diet principle: Eat less food. This is called calorie restriction.

Calorie restriction is the secret sauce of most weight loss diets. It’s the practice of limiting calories day after day, week after week, month after month—usually around a 15 to 50% decrease. So if you normally eat 2,000 calories per day, you’d eat 1,500 per day on a calorie restricted diet.

In the short term, calorie restriction does promote weight loss. That’s why the Biggest Loser has results worth airing.

The show doesn’t mention, however, that contestants regain most of the lost weight after the show wraps up. Why? Because—as an adaptation to the low calorie diets—their slow down. In other words, they burn less energy at rest.

It’s their bodies saying: Hey, if we’re gonna do this CR thing day after day, I’m gonna switch over to low power mode.

And once low power mode gets activated, it stays activated. In fact, one study on 16 participants from The Biggest Loser found that their metabolisms were still depressed six years after the show!(2)

Critics counter that weight loss by itself decreases metabolism. You're smaller, so now you need less food.

But here’s the problem with that explanation. On calorie restricted diets, metabolic rate drops more than predicted by weight loss alone. In one controlled study, researchers put 48 overweight people on either calorie restricted or non-calorie restricted weight maintenance diets for six months.(3) Not only did the calorie restricted groups have reduced RMR, they also did less physical activity than the control group.

The low power mode analogy really fits here. Starvation is well known to induce apathy and sluggishness.

The punchline is: Calorie restriction doesn’t work for sustainable weight loss. When normal portions resume, the weight comes roaring back.

The failure of calorie restriction explains a big chunk of why most diets fail. But there are deeper reasons.

A more fundamental reason why most diets fail

Most people consider diets to be temporary. Fifteen and 30 day resets are all the rage right now.

The claim is: Do this month-long program and you’ll achieve all your health goals. You’ll be able to hike in the mountains with your family, step on the scale without feeling ashamed, and feel boundless energy at 4 PM in the afternoon.

But what happens on day 31? That’s not clear.

Some people may stick with the new program. And maybe it will pay off. But others will return to old habits.

Think about it this way. Your old eating habits were formed over many years. Can a 15 day reset diet reverse those behaviors?

Of course not. And that’s the fundamental reason most diets fail. You can’t uproot old habits with a short-term mindset.

And so, 2 months after the reset diet, Bill is back on his couch with a big bowl of cereal at 10 PM on Friday. It’s not part of the program, but the program is over, right? Why not eat what I want?

The old way of doing things is deeply entrenched. Reversing it requires more than willpower. It requires a plan to uproot old habits and instill you with a new identity.

Basically, you want to become the kind of person who puts health #1, from a nutritional perspective.

When this identity takes hold, a diet is no longer temporary. Healthy decisions become second nature because they’re part of who you are. No sacrifice required. In the next module, we’ll be talking about habit change—how to break bad habits and instill good ones, specifically in the realm of dieting. This is the bedrock of success for any regimen, including keto fasting. Get your habits handled, and the rest will follow.

Module Summary

● A calorie is not a calorie. Different foods have different effects on your metabolism. ● Calorie restriction doesn’t work for long-term weight loss. Metabolism stays depressed, and the weight is regained when normal eating is resumed. ● The fundamental reason most diets fail is that old habits aren’t sufficiently uprooted. ● To have long-term success, you must become the kind of person who consistently eats healthy

SCIENTIFIC REFERENCES:

1) Randomized Trial Comparing a Very Low Diet and a Calorie-Restricted Low Fat Diet on Body Weight and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Healthy Women, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 2) Persistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after "The Biggest Loser" competition, 3) Effect of Calorie Restriction on Resting Metabolic Rate and Spontaneous Physical Activity, Obesity