What many people don’t realize when they decide to go on a diet is that temporarily changing what you eat will lead to you temporarily changing your weight. There are many diets which give short-term results, and it all comes down to the fact that they help you structure your caloric deficit in different ways.
However, there is no evidence to suggest that any temporary diet choice has given long term weight loss on a population based level. Obviously there are examples of people who have managed to sustain weight loss from a diet, but looking at whole populations who use the diet, too few succeed in maintaining this weight and tend to slowly regain the lost weight over time.
This is because they resume their original choice of food intake and activity level. In order to maintain weight loss, LIFESTYLE changes are necessary. The norm in today’s society is a diet which is leading to weight gain in the population.
This means that you must be prepared to stand out from the population in order to not gain this weight. Prepare yourself mentally for the fact that your lifestyle choice might challenge some social norms, such as not having doughnuts on that coffee break at work. Do this and you are well on your way to losing weight permanently!
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Sources:
1. Ayyad C et al. Long-term efficacy of dietary treatment of obesity: a systematic review of studies published between 1931 and 1999. Obes Rev. 2000 Oct;1(2):113-9.
2. Johnston BC et al. Comparison of weight loss among named diet programs in overweight and obese adults: a meta-analysis. JAMA. 2014 Sep 3;312(9):923-33.
3. Christian J et al. Interpreting weight losses from lifestyle modification trials: using categorical data. International journal of obesity (2005). 2010;34(1):207-209.
