Obviously Diets Make People Fatter
There must be dozens of popular weight-loss diets on bestseller lists or the top ranks of Google search. Sadly, the National Institute of Health found that one-third of us qualifies as obese and two-thirds of us are at least overweight. Here at FrugalPig.com, we don’t like to see people wasting their time and money on things that don’t work and even hurt them, so this topic is relevant to the overall message of this site.
Also, if some popular weight-loss plan has worked for you, that’s great. It’s fair to say that they don’t offer long-term success in the long run as numerous studies have shown that 95 percent of dieters won’t maintain their weight loss and will even gain back more weight AND FAT within a couple of years.
Overweight vs. Obese
As a note, the government generally defines overweight as a BMI of 25 and over, and they define obesity as a BMI of 30 or over. Extreme obesity refers to a BMI over 40.The NIH has a simple BMI calculator here.
Yes, people have different body types, so some people can be the same height and have a range of weights. Unless you’re a serious weight lifter, you probably weigh too much if your BMI falls well over 50 and especially, over 30. Hey, we’ve been there, so this isn’t an accusation. You didn’t fail, but your diet did.
The Reason Diets Fail Might Even be Obvious
Sadly, studies have found that there are more obese Americans than simply overweight Americans. It seems like most people who struggle with their weight, just gain more weight. Alev, from CravingsCured.com, put in some time to analyzing the reasons that diets make you fatter.
He rants a bit, but his outrage is sort of reasonable. If you objectively consider most popular weight-loss diets, they usually ask you to eliminate entire groups of food. Very often, they even ask you to rely upon supplements because you aren’t meeting your dietary needs with the menus they suggest.
The Five Big Reasons Diets Don’t Work
Mostly, Alev asks you to take a hard look at any diet plan you may consider to see if it is likely to:
- Popular diets lack essential nutrients.
- These diets may even throw off your natural balance and make you sick and miserable.
- Diets can signal your body to go into starvation mode, which means you have less energy and aren’t likely to burn fat efficiently.
- Popular diets cause cravings, and his ideas involve curing cravings.
- Diets may lack the protein, fiber, and fat that your body and brain need to maintain themselves and stay healthy.
Alev backs up his ideas with credible research and even common sense. Somehow, people get duped into believing that giving up carbs, fat, or some other group of food will provide the magic bullet they’ve been lacking.
You Can Lose Weight
Anyway, you can still lose weight, get more fit, and enjoy your food. You just can’t do it by sacrificing your mental and physical health. Any diet result that promises really rapid results is probably a bad idea. You need to eat enough protein, fiber, and healthy fat to keep your body running efficiently and your mind from sending you cravings for cheesecake at 3 AM.
If you ask Alev at CravingsCured.com, he’ll tell you to start by looking at your consumption of macros. Macros, or macronutrients, are the big three nutrients. These are fat, carbohydrates, and of course, protein. Typically, healthy weight loss means balancing calorie intake and eating enough of these. Yes, it’s a sort of diet, but it’s a sensible one.