7 mistakes to avoid while trying to get healthy. #1, fad diets.

The beginning of this series of articles was a list of the worst mistakes people make when they start working on improving their health. Now I’d like to cover each one of those items in detail, starting with #1, fad diets.

Fad diet is a term I use for a wide variety of eating plans. These include a wide variety of things, from Atkins to North Beach, from fruitarian to fasting. In fact, the diet blog recently ran a good article about the signs of a fad diet which can be found here. However, the real question is, what makes these diets really bad? What is it that makes them more than simply useless and turns them into a true mistake?

First, fad diets do nothing to educate people about eating habits. For the most part, fad diets simply tell you what to do instead of why you should be doing it. To me, this is one of the worst mistakes you can make. I greatly value education and knowledge so when I see a diet that simply lays down some rules rather than telling you why those rules exist, I see a mistake. You’re not going to learn how to eat healthy following this diet. You’re not going to learn about nutrition or the value of different kinds of food. You’re just going to learn the rules of this one specific diet. Now what happens if you are unable to follow that diet for a day? Maybe you’re out with family or perhaps you’re eating dinner with a customer. What do you do? If you actually learned about nutrition and health, you can almost always find a healthy meal, but if all you did was blindly follow a fad diet, then you know nothing and can’t really decide for yourself what is healthy and what isn’t.

Second, fad diets are by nature temporary. In fact, most fad diets will actually have a time limit as part of the diet. They’ll say things like “go on this diet for just 8 weeks” or “follow our eating plan for 12 weeks to see amazing results.” Yah, ok, and then what? What happens when the fad diet is done and you’re back to eating normally? All that weight comes right back on. True weight loss isn’t temporary and it’s not a result of temporary diets. True weight loss and good health come from permanent changes to your life. Unless you’re going to follow that fad diet for the rest of your life, you might as well not even start it.

Third, fad diets make you believe they’re the only thing you need. What I mean by this is that fad diets make the dieter believe that exercise, active lifestyle and all the other components of a healthy life are unnecessary. They do this by focusing on weightloss and little else. Unfortunately, weight loss is not the same thing as being healthy. Yep, you heard that right, losing weight is not the same thing as being healthy. Sure, for most people losing some weight will probably result in a health improvement. However, pure weight loss is not always healthy. For example, an athlete can lose weight by losing muscle mass. Is this healthy? Absolutely not, but a fad diet will make you think that all you need to do is follow the diet, lose some weight and your life will be perfect.

Finally, most fad diets will follow some odd eating habit that actually causes the dieter to eat in an unhealthy and unenjoyable manner. They will focus on only specific types of food or on a specific way of preparing the food. They will have you fasting, detoxifying, pureeing and eating nothing but frozen kidney beans. In other words, they will destroy any semblance you have of a healthy diet you can enjoy. To me, food is something to be celebrated and enjoyed. Healthy food can be wonderful, and even the occasional unhealthy snack (kept to a reasonable level) is a part of a life I love to live. I’d much slowly lose weight on a healthy, well rounded diet I can enjoy than eat a crazy diet of nothing but Asai berry smoothies in order to lose twenty lbs over the next three weeks.

Personal Experience

All that said, I actually tried a few of these diets when I first started to get healthy. I tried Atkins but stopped when I learned that some carbs are good and some proteins are not, something Atkins didn’t try to educate me on. I tried some of the meal replacement shakes, but stopped when meal time became a chore rather than a pleasure. I even tried a strict low fat diet, which seemed to work, but the weight came right back as soon as I stopped. I never once found a diet that was possible to follow long term, healthy and provided good results.

So I started reading about nutrition. I talked to my doctor about exercise and eating plans. I researched and learned and then researched some more. In fact, I’m still researching and I’m still learning and I hope to never run out of new things to learn. Eventually, I started understanding what I ate. I knew when something was bad or what meals were healthy and I was able to decide on my own what to eat and when. These days I don’t have a strict eating plan of what I can or cannot eat. I simply choose healthy, tasty food every meal and enjoy my life. That’s the diet I’m still on and plan to remain on for the rest of my days. Maybe I should name it something catchy like “Galometrics Diet” and write a book.

Summary

Fad diets are just that, fads. They’re things that are here today and gone tomorrow. Some of them might last longer, like Atkins, but that doesn’t make them any better. Do yourself a favor, educate yourself about nutrition and healthy eating habits. You’ll come up with a healthier and more enjoyable lifestyle than any of these plans.

Series Navigation

«The 7 worst mistakes to make while trying to lose weight, become fit and get healthy.7 mistakes to avoid while trying to get healthy. #2, forgetting about exercise.»

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