The diet industry is lying and so are most of your trainers…
My coach says, “nothing cool happens for nine months” and so far, that checks out. I’ve been working with him for five months and honestly, nothing cool has happened. Not really, anyways — except the fact that for the first time in my life, I’m eating real food and not restricting anything. I’m also eating way more calories than I’ve ever dreamed all while losing fat.
When you think about how to lose weight, the first action many think of is eating less calories; Being put “on a diet.” And if you ask most doctors and even many trainers, they’ll suggest you simply eat a bit less and move a bit more.
But that’s not always the answer. In fact, a game-changing piece of information this year has been seeing many people become successful by adding more food.
Okay, let’s go back up a step.
Have you ever heard “To lose weight, you just have to burn more calories than you’re taking in”? It’s true, by the way.
We need to both learn this truth, and unlearn it.
Let me explain.
Ever done a program like Weight Watchers? My mom took me to weight watchers at age 14. I was fat — we were going to be proactive and get thinner. We were all a little chubby in the family, but I was getting too fat so it was time to tackle this problem.
I’d never over scrutinised food- honestly, I was a kid and ate what I was given. Sometimes I’d fend for myself, but it was never in a crazy indulgent way — it was grabbing what was in the house whether that was a sandwich, TV dinner, or bowl of cereal. While we probably could have had more fresh, whole foods in the house, there was nothing crazy going on.
But with the tools provided by Weight Watchers, we all really expected results from 14-year-old Bonnie. So, I read the entire booklet they provided and all the materials. I followed it all.
Basically they told you what to eat. Sounds good- I had never followed a plan, so it seemed sort of exciting — like…why wouldn’t this work?
It never occurred to me that it wouldn’t work exactly as promised. And there were definitely promises involved — they told us exactly what to expect — a loss of 1–2 pounds a week, at least.
So, I did as I was told. The next Sunday we returned to the afternoon meeting to weigh in and I lost nothing. We went again the following week and I had still lost nothing. We didn’t do this for long — probably just several weeks. We were not super impressed-I lost a pound or two within several weeks, but compared to what was advertised, the plan seemed defective. Or me…maybe I was defective. But either way, it “wasn’t working.”
So, what went wrong? A few things.
One of the biggest issues in the weight loss industry is the expectations they have created and advertised.
Here’s what diet programs consistently tell us (and what they’ll insist “science” is telling us as well).
“Weight loss is math.”
For instance, check out this word problem:
Bill wants to lose 10lbs! If he burns 2500 calories a day, how many calories does he need to eat in order to lose 10lbs in a month?
Well, if we do the “math” we can argue that bill can eat 2000 calories a day, thereby allowing him to burn 500 calories toward his goal per day and 3500 calories a week. That would mean in 10 weeks, bill should have lost 10 pounds!
That’s math. And it’s science.
Sort of.
But of course there are other things going on. On the bright side, you can also say, hmm what will happen if Bill does an hour of cardio 3 times a week. He might burn more calories. Or, what if he spends a lot of time on strength training? He might build more muscles, which weigh more than fat, but also burn fat more efficiently.
What we must understand is that when Bill goes to his weight watchers meeting on Sunday, or just steps on his home scale, it’s idiotic AF for Bill to expect to lose one pound every week.
So, why do we believe this? Because this is what is being drilled into our fragile little human brains, kids.
And if you only understand the basic math/science element, it makes sense. In fact, if that’s what you’re going on, it’s the only reality that makes sense.
Only it’s not true. It’s not reality.
“But what about the math?!” Honestly guys…I don’t know! Okay, I sort of know. One thing we need to understand is that some of this evens out over time. For instance, maybe Bill does all of this consistent work for six months and sees VERY little change to the scale. But then there is a big weight drop-off in that sixth month, though not what we’d have calculated mathematically.
Now, if we looked at a more sophisticated scale that analyses actual fat loss, we might see that Bill lose 20 lbs of fat and gained five pounds of muscle. But our basic home scales do not provide that info.
When it comes to weight loss there is a lot going on — more than can fit in a brief essay. And of course, things vary from person to person.
So, what can we understand across the board? Timelines are stupid.
Am I telling you not to set goals within “reasonable” amounts of time? No, buddy. You do you. If you think that helps, feel free.
But consider this- even if you have had a reliable journey of weight loss, it can change at any minute. Especially if you’re a woman… especially if you’re over 30. But really, at any time. Anyone can be a victim of the reality that it’s not a fair expectation to lose 1–2 pounds a week…
What if big players in the weight loss industry stopped force-feeding us that lie of what the timeline should look like. You know what would happen? A hell of a lot more success.
We believe we deserve 1–2 pounds a week of weight loss because that is what we have been taught. But it’s made up. It exists, but it’s not something you can or should count on.
So free yourself of that myth, celebrate victories as you see them, and be prepared to play a much longer game.
Most people can starve off 10–20 pounds in a relatively short period of time, but if you’re looking for lasting, healthy change, it’s time to build healthier expectations of what that’s going to look like.
