War of the Diets

Not too long ago there was a debate on Swedish television where various “celebrities” and nutritional advisors argued on the importance of diets that all featured varied content. This, of course, got noticed on two of the major Swedish training-oriented forums (BODY & Kolozzeum) and fueled even more debates.

On the BODY Forum I've replied and made a few posts that describe how I view it (under the name Doc), but I've decided to take it a bit further and extend my thoughts to the website. Keep in mind that when I discuss diets, I aim myself towards diets that concern people who are grossly overweight. I do not keep in mind individuals who are dieting to reach a perfect form for a competition, nor do I include people who diet to gain weight. Also, for the sake of argument, I may simplify somewhat to prove my point.

Why any kind of weight loss diet works
Any diet designed for weight loss will potentially work, given that you actually do what it tells you to do. For people who are concerned with weight loss, and who devote a fair bit of their time to learning more about the subject, it's clear that only one thing dictates if you lose weight: Spend more energy (calories) than you consume. To simplify, this means: Exercise more than you eat.

"...it's clear that only one thing dictates if you lose weight: Spend more energy (calories) than you consume. To simplify, this means: Exercise more than you eat."

What any kind of diet does is that it gives you the tools to either consciously or unconsciously control the amount of calories that you consume. For example: LCHF (Low Carb High Fat) is a diet that strictly limits you from consuming a major source of nutrients - carbohydrates. You consciously avoid a certain nutrient and thereby unconsciously control the amount of calories that you consume. A more conscious approach would be that which the Weight Watchers apply. They've created their own "calorie system", where each and every type of food has a number of points related to it. When following this system, you're only allowed to eat a certain amount of points each day. Essentially you are counting calories (in the form of points) and thereby consciously controlling your daily calorie consumption.

The issue with most diets: Short-term thinking
The way I see it, a huge issue with any kind of diet is that it mostly concerns itself with short-term thinking. For example, it's more important to lose X amount of pounds in X amount of weeks than it is to mold the new habits into your current lifestyle. It leaves us hanging when we've finally reached our goal (or desired weight). Some of us may find a way to incorporate the new diet into our lifestyle and it becomes something natural for us. But unfortunately many of us go back to our previous habits once we're through with the diet.

The fact that this happens is not very surprising considering it's often easier to plan and execute a short-term goal than a long-term goal. We manage this since we only have to endure a short-term goal for a short period of time - it requires less planning. Instead, it would most likely be more favorable if we were to change a habit with long-term thinking in mind. This would mean that we would have to endure it for a longer period. Through this we are forced to plan more throughly, keep the changes less drastic and adapt them to our everyday life - otherwise we couldn't live with them. In essence: Most of us can make a simple plan and endure a gruesome diet for three months, but very few could do so for a whole year.

Why people can't agree on which diet is the best
If there was a diet that guaranteed that you'd lose weight you'd probably follow it. And I've already said that any diet will potentially work if you follow it. So why are some of us overweight? The answer is that weight loss is more than just training and eating properly.

When we discuss weight loss we tend to only have one or two factors in mind: Training and Nutrition. The fact that we only concern ourselves with these two factors is further intensified by the fact that these discussions are normally carried within training or nutrition-oriented forums. The major issue here is that weight loss often involves so much more than just telling someone what to eat or how to train.

"For someone that is deeply engaged in a detrimental behavior, such as overeating, a diet without any psychological evaluation is about as good as telling an alcoholic to start drinking water instead of booze. Sure, you've told the person what he needs to do, but that's hardly what the issue is about."

Losing weight is no different from changing any other habit in your life. If we take an individual who over-consumes alcohol for example, I think most of us can agree that we can't just simply tell that person to "put down the bottle". In the same manner, we can't just simply tell someone who is prone to overeating to "stop eating". The problem is that this is essentially what a lot of diets do. They tell you what to eat and what not to eat. They do not account for any psychological factors that contributes to your behavior. They do not care about the reasons behind why you eat the way you eat and they rarely concern themselves with how you could integrate them in your current life.

So, again, why can't people agree on a certain diet? I've basically already given you the answer. Diets account very little for personality and individuality. They generally do not care about the reasons to why you are engaging in the habits that you currently are. Even if they do, they can't do it on a personal level. They are guidelines and they should be viewed as such. How often does someone - without having learned anything about you first - have a solution that fits you? For someone that is deeply engaged in a detrimental behavior, such as overeating, a diet without any psychological evaluation is about as good as telling an alcoholic to start drinking water instead of booze. Sure, you've told the person what he needs to do, but that's hardly what the issue is about.

Why I'm not overly excited about programs like Biggest loser
I'm a sucker for personal victories, and seeing someone proud of what they've accomplished gives me a great personal satisfaction. But, what I see as a problem is how shows such as Biggest loser somewhat simplifies reality. I'm all for giving people hope and I bet a lot of people see hope when they view the show. However, what some may not realize is that shows like that essentially remove most of the factors that may affect your bad habits. It's not hard to focus on what you should be eating and how you should be training if that's all that you have to think about. Normal life involves a lot of obstacles and issues that all affect our eating and training habits. If they are removed, losing weight becomes a lot easier. How many of us can actually simplify our lives to the point where all we have to think about is "how much weight have I lost today"?

"How many of us can actually simplify our lives to the point where all we have to think about is 'how much weight have I lost today?'"

Diet VS Physical Activity
I feel that I can't overstress the importance of viewing weight loss as more than just nutrition and training. But, at the same time, I don't want to paint a picture where anyone who wants to lose weight should hire a psychologist, a nutritionist and a personal trainer - or preferably all in one. I realize that a lot of us can lose weight without having to think deep and hard about why we do the things the way we do. A proof of this is the countless of people who actually have lost weight from using a specific diet without having any deeper knowledge about why they managed to quit their previous "bad habits". Therefore I'll talk a little about my personal view on initial weight loss.

For a second, let's put all the things I've just said aside. Let's go to extremes and only concern ourselves with training and nutrition. What I personally believe is that it's easier to dramatically increase the training dosage than it is to dramatically change your diet. Reason to why I say this is because increasing the training instead of changing the diet normally involves a lot less need of knowledge. To oversimplify: Not everyone knows how to eat "proper food", but most of us can go out for a walk.

Another reason as to why I prefer increasing the training dosage instead of changing your diet is because it does not interferer with social gatherings as much. Food, as we know it, is more than just something that we eat to stay alive. It's a way for us to interact with each other. If we deviate from social activities too much, friends and acquaintances tend to take notice. To put it simple: More people will take notice if we don't eat a piece of cake at a birthday party than if we decide to do a morning walk 7 times a week. It's also easier for others to take notice if we end up breaking our diet rather than if we simply stop training. Having others noticing our failures to follow through with a plan may affect our self-esteem. Even more so than if we were the only ones who knew that we failed.

"To put it simple: More people will take notice if we don't eat a piece of cake at a birthday party than if we decide to do a morning walk 7 times a week."

Again, I'm going to extremes here and in most cases it is a combination of both physical activity and changed nutritional habits that prevails. But I personally do believe that initially it's easier to increase the training dosage than changing your eating habits. However, simply increasing your training dosage can only take you so far.

Summary
There are so many factors that goes into losing weight, and only two of them usually comes to light: Nutrition and Training. We need to look at the whole picture and not narrow ourselves to simply these two variables. If you've found a diet that works for you and you want to share this with the world. Do so, but keep in mind that the steps you took might not work for everyone.

Also, be critical about why your diet works. Is it because the food you're eating really is the best food to eat, or is it simply because it happens to suit you and your personal lifestyle?

Links (Swedish only)

Swedish Television: Debate on Diets
BODY Forum: Thread on the debate
Kolozzeum Forum: Thread on the debate