6 Characteristics of a Fad Diet [Ep. 30]

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Hi, welcome back to the Eat well, Think Well, Live Well podcast. I'm Lisa Salsbury. And my mission is to help women stop obsessing about everything they eat. And feel confident about their ability to lose weight without a diet app. Today, I want to address this question. Is your program just another diet? In order to do that, we're going to take a look at six common characteristics of fad diets. See, if you recognize anything you've done in the past in some of these examples. Don't worry. I see myself and I'll give you my experiences in almost all of them. So you're not alone.

Lisa: 0:37

Welcome to Eat Well, Think Well, Live Well; the podcast for women who want to lose weight, but are tired of counting and calculating all the food. I'm your host, Lisa Salsbury. I'm a certified health and weight loss coach and life coach, and most importantly a recovered chronic dieter. I'll teach you to figure out why you are eating when you aren't hungry, instead of worrying so much about what you are eating.

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happy Valentine's day yesterday. Hope you had a great day and it's something you love, hopefully with someone you love. A couple things before we jump into today's topic first, I've got a group program in the works and I'm currently taking names on a wait list for that. I feel like I haven't shared enough about what that group program will look like. So how would you even know if you want to be on that list? First thing to know is that if you sign up on this early interest list, you'll get a special bonus for you and a friend. The whole point of doing a group program is to get the community that comes from reaching for a similar goal to those you are surrounded with. So all the better, if you bring a friend along that you already know. So this group will be for you. If you are tired of the constant battle with your weight, and you just want someone to support you and trying to quote, eat like a normal person. Right. It's like in quotes, I just want to eat like a normal person. Isn't that? What we all want. You're tired of looking for yet another weight loss plan or diet. You're tired of counting calories, counting macros. Weighing your food counting out almonds. You wonder if there's another way? You don't want to sacrifice going out to dinner and having fun or celebratory dinners with family, but you know, that something has to change. About what you're doing on a day in and day out basis. I want you in this group, if you are committed to making some changes with how you think about food and your body. I want you to come. If you are committed to trying a new way of thinking about how much you eat. And if you're ready to get really honest about your emotional eating. I want you to apply if you want to eat like a naturally thin person. That's our goal, right. Is to just eat without worry. That's how folks that are naturally thin. Do it. I'm not talking about women who obsess about their weight and are thin. I'm not talking about everything person and how they eat, because we all know everyone that is thin is not also doing that in a healthy manner. And my heart goes out to those with eating disorders. So don't think I'm dismissing them, but I am talking about those women that seem to easily stop at enough and say yes, only when they really mean it to food that they want. I'm talking about those women that eat dessert when they choose to, but not every night. I'm talking about people that prioritize their health in a way that their mental health is just as important as their physical health. Being relaxed about what you're eating is just as important as what is on your plate. So, if you are committed and excited to eat like this. This group is for you. We will be working towards your personal health and wellness goals. I think most will come in with a weight loss goal, but we will make sure everyone also is working on something regarding their health or their nutrition, or maybe a relationship in their life. So we will have a short lesson at the start of each coaching session. So the topic for the week, basically, and then open it up for coaching members of the group. If you've never been part of group coaching or seen how it works, you will love it. Seriously. It's so easy. To see solutions when it's not you. And then you realize, oh wait, that's me too. What she's talking about? That happens to me. You'll get ideas and ways to think about things that you never would have gotten just on your own. So group coaching really is magical. But I also know that sometimes you still just need some one-on-one time with a coach. Maybe something is a little too private. You're not quite ready for that environment. So it's actually somewhat of a hybrid program, which I really excited about. Uh, there will be eight group calls one each week, and also you will get the option of scheduling two one-on-one calls with me. Some people may not want the one-on-one calls because they prefer coaching in the group. And that's fine. These calls will basically just be an add on like a bonus to the group sessions. All sessions will be recorded for you to watch again or on the off chance that you miss one. You will get a printed workbook to take notes and there will be some planning pages and guided journaling. And it's cute. So the price point on this program is going to be much lower than my one-on-one coaching. Of course. So that's also another bonus of group coaching. So if you have more questions, Don't hesitate to reach out to me, or you can schedule a free strategy session and we can discuss if group or one-on-one coaching is a better fit for you. Okay. So in light of talking about this group coaching program today, I wanted to address the question I sometimes receive, which is, is your program just a diet in disguise? I've seen this on social media with some intuitive eating folks. For example, saying any weight loss program is just a diet in disguise. I love intuitive eating. And I would say that without following the exact 10 tenants that are part of that philosophy. My clients basically graduate to an intuitive eating type pattern when they are in maintenance. The problem with intuitive eating for me. Is that it doesn't allow for any weight loss efforts. For some people that is exactly what they need. But I find that many women want to lose weight and that is okay too. Sometimes we get caught up in the idea that we should accept ourselves the way we are. And so that means we don't change anything, but what if you want to move around easier? What if you want to be able to get off the floor with ease? What have you want to improve your longevity? What if you want to be stronger to carry more groceries, carry more children, pick up your aging parent from the floor and put them in bed. That actually happened to me one time and I was grateful. I was strong and I took care of my body in such a way that that was possible. I mean, I recently had a client tell me they no longer make a noise. When they get out of a chair, they just get up. And it's so freeing to that person. It's like, Hey, I can move around a little easier. With a little less weight on my frame. if you feel like weight loss would make your life easier. That is a valid reason for wanting to lose weight. So when we want to do that, then typically we say we are on a diet. I put that in quotes. Herein lies. The problem dieting has gotten a bad rap. But every single person, every single day actually has a diet. The definition of the word diet is the kinds of food, a person animal or community habitually eats. For example, a vegetarian diet. So someone who eats a vegetarian diet, isn't said to be on a diet, but they have a specific food pattern that they choose. So everyone has an eating pattern. It's a shame there isn't a better word or more vocabulary around this topic, but honestly it doesn't even matter to me today because for our purpose to today, I think what we really want to avoid when dieting or making weight loss efforts is actually fad dieting. We want to know if what we are attempting with coaching or any other plan you're going to try is just another fad diet. Is this another scheme? So to find out, let's break down some of the common characteristics of fad diets. And what alternatives there are to these issues. this is actually a list I put together from a couple of different places, but mostly Mayo clinic has, um, a lot of these things listed as hallmarks of fad diets. So number one, Promises a quick fix. And or has a timeframe. Fad diets will often promise that you only have to do this for a short time. Every magazine cover that has a diet inside will tell you in only six weeks, 10 days, Two weeks, You too, can look like our cover model. Fad diets will tell you that it can happen very, very quickly. Fad diets often also come with a pre-planned timeframe. It should last I'm sure you can think of some, but there are a few I've done personally, whole 30 for example, tells the brain that on day 31, you can have a cupcake. Even though I know that's not what they propose. I'm telling you what the brain hears when it says this is a 30 day diet. I did this lemon six program. I did the 21 day fix program. These fad diets have a timeframe and they tell the brain that this is only temporary. And then you can go back to normal. As far as the quick fix goes, if a diet is promising more than two pounds per week, Really. I would say more than a pound and a half per week. That's a bad sign. That's not sustainable and you will need to eat a lot. I mean, a lot less than what you are currently eating to achieve a two pound plus weight loss each and every week. The truth is weight loss takes time. I'm not going to sugar, coat it. You can lose weight. You can lose your weight. But the truth is just like many things that are worth doing it. Won't be quick. And it won't be just for a short period of time. When you learn to eat like a naturally thin person or someone who you think of that, just to quote, eats normally. That will be forever. If you only want to be healthy for six weeks, then yes. Fat diets are for you. If you want to be healthy forever, both in your body and mentally, which means fixing your relationship with food, then fat diets are absolutely not the way to go. All right. Number two, promotes magic foods or combinations of foods. I love this one because I have been yet. I have been on these diets as well. I've mentioned before, but I was on a diet that had certain combinations of food. Based on the day of the week. You had a Monday, Tuesday list. A different Wednesday, Thursday list and then a Friday, Saturday, Sunday list. It was so crazy because like there were days of the week. I couldn't eat broccoli, which in hindsight, I find hilarious, but. Like, why did I. Abide by that, but I sure did. Many diets will tell you to eat certain foods in combination or never in combination with another. I have also seen things where you have to eat a certain food at each and every meal or a certain food each day. Um, the truth is there are no superfoods magic combinations of foods are anything like that. That will make you lose weight just by eating them. I mean, honestly, the grapefruit diet who hasn't tried that one. The only combination you need to know is what food is made up of scientifically. And that's macro nutrients. Those are your carbs fats and protein. Those are the building blocks of foods. The combination you need to focus on is a combination of those macronutrients. You don't need to weigh and measure because you're smart. You know what protein is, you know what carbs are. You've dieted long enough to know when you're having a serving of protein and what that looks like. The magic combination is having some protein, some fat. And some carbohydrate at each meal with the foundation for women being protein. Okay. Number three way to recognize a fad diet. It implies that food can change body chemistry. This is similar to the magic combination of food, but specifically diets that tell you they will improve your metabolism by the combination of foods you eat. Or that tell you, they're going to balance your hormones. You may have even seen others that tell you they're going to change your pH, make you more alkaline. Yeah, these things are all your body chemistry. And as a lot more, that goes into say your metabolism. And also your hormones. That cannot be changed by a simple fat diet. Changing your body chemistry in those ways requires a lot of time and won't happen in the short time that they promise. And by the way, changing your pH is actually not a thing. You can't do that. You could eat foods that are more alkaline or more acidic. Right. But if you were able to change the pH of your blood, that would actually be really. Like dangerous. So our bodies don't actually have the ability to do that. It would be like eating foods and expecting it to change your body temperature. So. Um, yeah, that's, that's just not true on that one. So if we're just going to talk about the two more promised results, which is changing your metabolism or changing your hormones in order to make an impact on your metabolism, you're actually going to have to increase your muscle mass, which happens in the gym with lifting heavy weights. Not as much in the kitchen, obviously you need again to make protein the basis of your diet in order to build muscle as you are lifting weights. But that is the most significant way that we can impact our metabolism. And even then it's honestly a ferry. Very minimal impact. Your basal metabolic rate is the energy expenditure. It takes to keep you alive. This keeps all your organs running and keeps, you know, keeps the lights on. Right. This accounts for about 70% of your overall total daily energy expenditure. That's a huge portion that just your organs use. Your skeletal muscle uses about 18% of your total energy expenditure for the day. I was going to try to run the math on all of this thinking, like, okay, say you put on 5%. Muscle mass, but. All of that math suffice to say that changing your metabolism on a six week diet, just by the food you eat. That is just not going to happen. So let's just recognize this one for the straight up lie that it is. Okay. Number four, excludes or severely restricts food groups. Or nutrients such as carbohydrates. Okay, this is huge, right. We've probably all tried these diets that restrict entire macronutrient groups. In the eighties and nineties for me, when I first started dieting, it was fat. Everything was low fat or non-fat. And we also vilified butter and went to using margarine, which wow. What, what a disservice that was. But then there are the keto and Atkins type diets, which completely issue carbohydrates. And I've seen diets that also tell you that we're eating way too much protein and that we should limit our protein intake and fruitarian diets where you eat nothing but fruit and some seeds. So that obviously is like 90% carbs and extremely low fat and protein. None of these options are good. You will lose weight on these types of fat diets, because when you restrict an entire food group, You are essentially restricting overall energy or calorie intake. And so you will lose weight. I've done. These probably south beach was the one I did the most. I remember my husband and I did that one before a cruise, and we had a piece of bread the first day that we were out on the boat and we were like, oh my goodness, this is the best thing we've ever eaten in my life. And it like, wasn't even good bread. So, um, yeah. I, I would encourage you to avoid these types of diets. Like the plague. Food is made up of the three basic macronutrients and our bodies thrive when we get all three. Samuel's might have more of one than another, but overall. Strive for balance here. With your main building block, being protein as again, that will help maintain your muscle mass and also the thermal effect of food or the T E F you may have seen it. Of protein is the highest of the three macronutrients, meaning it takes the most energy. And the longest amount of time in the digestion process to get through that protein. This is going to keep you in that neutral state. I talk about on the hunger scale. For longer. And keep you from needing to have a snack every two hours. Women. I hope you hear me when I say you need carbohydrates, you need them. Also without fruit in your life. You'll live a sad and miserable existence. I'm kidding. But seriously. I would be so sad if I didn't eat mangoes. remember though that fruits and vegetables are PERMA hydrates. I once was on a bootcamp diet from a gym that limited onions and bell peppers and carrots because of the sugar content. I mean, come on. Don't be like me learn from my mistakes, learn to recognize these signs of, of fat diets. Okay. Number five. Fad diets have frigid rules that focus on a weight loss instead of overall health. So if you have, if you have to follow a particular food list, if you have to purchase specific pre-packaged foods or shakes, If you have to avoid a big list of foods, that's a fad diet. These a long list of Richard rules are not sustainable in the long run. You won't know how to maintain your weight loss without these rigid rules. These types of rules are heavily focused just on your scale, weight number. Uh, not on your overall health. And again, I'm including your mental health here because my mental health is not good. If I don't plan some sweet treats, occasionally. Rigid rules of the fad diets never allow for these types of foods. Okay. Number six. Is they make claims based on a single study or testimonials alone. This one is pretty self-explanatory. Please don't do something based solely on before and after photos or a single study that doesn't even include your reference group. For example, most intermittent fasting studies are done on men. Um, actually the truth is about 75% of all medical research is performed on men. Which, you know, men don't make up 75% of the population. So that's weird. There are several reasons for this primarily though. It's because we women have those pesky hormones and cycles and might get pregnant. So basically where I nuisance to the researchers. this is dangerous for women medically in many cases, just like how crash test dummies are built to men's proportions. But I am getting off on a tangent here. The thing is that many studies aren't even done on women. So be wary, be very wary. So if there is only one study, make sure it's done on your reference group. Does it include your age range and your gender? I think for the most part, we could recognize these fad diets for what they are now. This is not what is going to get you to live to a hundred. These bad diet plans are not looking to get you in the most optimal health. They don't care. If you feel like you are taking exquisite care of your body. As long as you lose inches and take an after photo, those fat diets are happy. The main difference between my program and a fad diet is that fad diets ask for overnight overhaul of your eating pattern. My program will help you change one small thing each week until you were eating like you want to for the rest of your life. That's why no foods are off limits and I don't give you food lists. The reason is that I don't know what you like to eat. Only, you know, that. I don't know what your food or schedule preferences are. I don't know when you have time to make food, do you have time to make things from scratch? Have you ever gotten one of those meal plans that gives you a recipe for every single meal? I am happy to brainstorm ideas with you if you're needing that. But for the most part, my clients choose their own foods. You will be constructing a way of eating that feels doable. Forever. I know that actually sounds terrible because you're thinking what. I can't diet forever. And that's the thing I am not asking you to diet forever. I am asking you to pay attention to your body forever. I'm asking you to care about how you fuel your body forever. I'm asking you to move your body around most days of the week. Forever. These are actually habits you want to develop. You just haven't figured out how yet. The changes you make should be ones you can live with. I don't like using the word diet because so many people think of it in terms of something you do for a while and then stop. But everyone has a diet or a way of eating. It's just that there's no finish line when it comes to eating healthy and being active. And that's my goal is to help you find a way of eating and thinking about your body that you can and want to maintain. For the rest of your life. So, if you recognize yourself in some of these fad diets, or if you notice that these are the things that you normally pick. It might be time to try something different. I hope this has answered the question is your program, just another diet in disguise. I hope that you have seen how fad diets are very different from what I am proposing that we do together. So I would encourage you to get on that interest list for my group program. I will have that program fully ready in the next week or so. So I'll be announcing the start date as well. As any other. Details I'm missing here. So be sure to get on that list and let me know again, what other questions you might have. So be sure to get on that list and you'll be the first to know the link for that of course, is in the show notes. And I will talk to you next week.

Lisa: 23:10

hey, thanks for listening today. If you're ready to get some personalized coaching from me, I'd encourage you to schedule a free strategy session. Visit www.wellwithlisa.as.me or it's easier just to find that link in the show notes. We'll talk about where you currently are with your weight loss goals. And I'll give you some actionable tools. You can start implementing right away. Before you go, make sure you subscribe to the podcast so you can receive new episodes, right when they're released. And if you're learning something new and enjoying the podcast, I'd love for you to leave me a five star rating and a review. Thanks again for joining me, Lisa Salisbury in this episode of Eat Well, Think Well, Live Well.