Written by Sarah

Diets can be a hard space to navigate! There is always a new one popping up, grabbing our attention! So what should we do?  

Fad diets, what to make of them?

Fad diets, they’re topical aren’t they!  Everyone knows someone who is trying out the latest craze, the latest quick fix that’s guaranteed to lose weight.  Think Keto, Paleo, detoxes, Atkins, juice cleanses, shakes and the list goes on.  Do they sound too good to be true?  If they do, you’re probably right.  

Why do they not work? Answer: generally, they are not sustainable.  

I looked up the definition of fad and it is defined as a noun, an intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, especially one that is short-lived; a craze.  

Fad diets are just that, a craze that draws you in with amazing claims to lose weight and yes, most of them will have you losing weight because 9 times out of 10 you are drastically changing your current diet to meet the needs of this new one.  However they don’t tend to teach you about food (and your relationship with food), it’s often not enjoyable, and they are quick fixes and I think we all know that in whatever capacity a quick fix is not sustainable, it’s not for the long term! 

Fad diets, more often than not, exclude one or more food groups therefore making your diet inadequate and possibly prone to nutrient deficiencies.  They tend to cause rapid weight loss which is not sustainable.  People are often unable to stay on them for a long duration and when you fall off the wagon and eat ‘normally’ again the weight is likely to increase.  

So what do you do if the ‘fad’ diets don’t work?… 

You don’t diet! Yep, that’s right, cut the diets, the calorie counting, the avoiding certain foods or cutting out food groups and create some healthy sustainable habits that you can continue for long past that next fad diet craze.  

Cutting out the ‘dieting’ phase means that you don’t overhaul your diet all at once, it means making a few (manageable) changes to your diet, practicing them, making them habitual and then moving on to the next hurdle (i.e. a few more changes).  

Each change will look different for each person, it may be something such as trying to make lunch 3 times a week instead of buying something convenient on the run every week day.  It may be trying to eat breakfast each day, it may even be something like having 3 set meals a day instead of continuous grazing and picking.  You might want to increase your fruit and vegetable intake throughout the day which in turn reduces the more unhealthy snacks that are creeping into your day.  And guess what, it doesn’t matter if at this point your diet isn’t perfect because, if you’re making a change, it’s going to be better than what it was! 

You all remember the child hood story of “The Tortoise and the Hare”… that’s right, slow and steady wins the race!