Why You Are Constantly Failing Your Diet
If you are one of the many people trying to lose body fat but aren’t seeing changes on the scale or in the way you look, this article will help you understand why and guide you on what you can do to start achieving the results you want.
Which Category Do You Fit Into?
The Yo-Yoer
If you find yourself regularly trying to lose weight with some success, but then regaining most if not all of it back, then this is the category you will likely fit into.
The “Healthy” Eater
If you’re consciously making “healthier” food choices—such as eating more whole foods, “superfoods,” or foods generally considered beneficial—but not seeing weight loss, this might be your category.
The Trier
If you’re trying to lose weight and feel you’re doing your best, but after a few months don’t see the progress you expected, you might fall into this category. You might follow your plan most of the time, but a couple of meals each week aren’t on track, leading you back to old habits over time.
How to Start Getting Results
The Yo-Yoer
Most yo-yo diets fail because the initial changes are too drastic to sustain. To create lasting habits, start by making small, manageable adjustments to your routine. For example, if you currently get an on-the-go breakfast consisting of a flat white, sandwich and a granola yogurt bowl. You could do the following to start making progress:
Try swapping a flat white for black coffee and the granola yogurt bowl for a piece of fruit, but keep the sandwich.
Stick with these changes for at least a month. This way, you maintain familiar routines but make small adjustments to reduce calories.
Over time, look for another 1% improvement and integrate it.
With this gradual approach, you may not see immediate results, but the changes will be more sustainable, which is essential for a successful weight-loss journey.
The “Healthy” Eater
Your challenge may lie in the calories of your food choices. Even nutrient-rich, home-cooked foods can lead to weight gain if consumed in excess. To start addressing this:
Use a food scale to measure portions, especially for high-calorie fat sources like avocado and nut butter, and watch out for snack foods like nuts, seeds, and dried fruit.
Once you know your caloric intake, make simple swaps to reduce it. For example, try fresh berries instead of dried fruit, or swap salted nuts for low-calorie popcorn (like Proper Corn) to keep snacks healthy while reducing calories.
Another common area for improvement is oil usage, which can quickly increase a meal’s calorie count. Measure oils used in cooking, dressing, and meal prep.
The Trier
The “trier” will find it very challenging to admit to being so. If reading about the “trier.” prompts you to start thinking of ways you are not then I’d consider pushing through. Awareness is the first step to progress. Often, triers talk about “trying” to lose weight and all the exercise that they are doing but when they are in private the consistency falls by the wayside. An example of this that is somewhat common is somebody who Monday through Friday is eating just their meal prep and exercising 3-5 times but when the weekend rolls around they over-consume and eat exclusively off-plan meals and won't exercise.
If you eat under 2000 calories Monday through Friday but binge on weekends, consider balancing your approach.
Try meal-prepping only breakfast and lunch during the week, cooking fresh dinners, and planning one workout on Saturday with an off-plan meal that evening.
This approach may be slower, and you might even gain weight initially due to the novelty of cooking fresh meals. But over time, you’ll make more sustainable progress, shifting from a Trier to a Doer.
