The Deal With Dieting

For 2015, the most popular New Year's Resolution was to either get in shape or lose weight. But apparently only 8% of people actually achieve the goals they set for themselves in the new year. Why is that?

Perhaps it's because our culture sets people up for failure by skewing the image of the weight loss process. For example, consider this feature on a popular magazine's website:

"Get Your Best Body In Two Weeks". Really? It'll only take two weeks for my body to look the best it's ever been? Somehow I'm skeptical. And when you actually click on the link on the website, it turns out to be an article promoting a weight-loss supplement... giving you a link to purchase the supplement at the bottom on the page.Now, marketing gimmicks notwithstanding, there's no doubt that the dialogue these magazines create about weight loss is totally skewed.

Or maybe, perhaps people fail at dieting because of the massively conflicting (and oftentimes harmful) slew of information available about health and nutrition. For example, consider two of the most popular diets in the past 5 years - the Paleo diet, and the Vegan diet. The Paleo diet, in short, emulates the style of eating by our "Paleolithic" ancestors- namely, no processed food, lots of meat, and nothing (including certain types of vegetables!) that wasn't in existence 10,000 years ago. Veganism, on the other hand, follows an extremely strict no animal by-products diet - that means no meat, no eggs, no dairy, etc. Both Paleo and Vegan diets espouse amazing health benefits, yet dictate almost exact opposite eating philosophies. Even doctors don't agree on which diet is the best for overall health!

________________________________________________________________________

The purpose of this post isn't to bash dieting, or to put down Paleo or Veganism. What I do hope to do for whoever's reading this, is inspire critical thinking - to inspire you question everything. If a magazine says you can "Drop 30lbs in 30 Days", seriously question that claim. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. 

There is no magical, healthy way to lose weight fast and keep it off. The only sure way weight loss can be achieved is with long-term lifestyle change - more movement, fewer calories and fewer processed food. No supplement or "miraculous" diet plan can change your weight if you don't change the way you live first. So if you're being inundated with sketchy weight loss claims or too-good-to-be-true diets, remember this truth, and take it with a grain of salt. 

ॐ Namasté