In a recent post I argued that there is no reliable evidence for the negative health implications of yo-yo dieting. Today I want to go one step further by arguing that yo-yo dieting can in fact be good for you – perhaps not in the strictest biological sense, but in terms of your general health and wellbeing.
Calorie Counting – There’s a Better Way
Back in 2009 I did quite a lot of running and followed a pretty strict diet.
I would calorie count down to the last gram of food, keeping a detailed log of everything I ate. It was utterly ridiculous. However, it seemed to be effective – over the course of nine months or so I lost nearly 30lbs and was the lightest I have ever been in my adult life.
It doesn’t mean that my method was optimum though. After all, if you’re running 20–30 miles per week and eating dramatically less than you normally would, the weight is bound to fall off you. One thing’s for sure: my new eating regime certainly wasn’t enjoyable.
In this post I want to explain why calorie counting isn’t the only approach to dieting, and offer up a completely different (and far more intuitive) approach that will never leave you hungry.
Change the Way You Think About Exercise in Three Minutes
Most of us don’t like the word “exercise.” It is associated with many negative connotations such as pain, suffering, and toil. A lifetime of trying to exercise has led us to hate the very notion of it. Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can learn to love the idea of exercise in just the time it takes to read the rest of this article.
Let’s start by defining exercise.
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One Simple Way to Eat Fewer Unhealthy Snacks
For many of us, our diets fail in-between meals. We might eat quite healthily when it comes to mealtime, only to be let down by unhealthy snacking in the afternoon and evening. With that in mind, logic dictates that if you can modify your snacking behavior, you can improve your diet and lose weight. In this article I have one simple suggestion that can help you do just that.
The key is to make yourself work for it. Don’t ban yourself from eating the snacks that you love, but make the process of getting your hands on them more difficult.
Will this really help? Science says yes – it’s all to do with convenience.
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Why You Should Skip Breakfast
We’ve all been told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Have you ever questioned that axiom? If you are willing to divorce yourself from the idea that breakfast is a necessity, you may be able to adjust your diet to better suit your body’s needs and lose weight at the same time.
Cutting out an entire meal can seem pretty daunting, especially considering that breakfast is often touted as the most important meal of the day. Past studies have claimed that eating breakfast provides many benefits for health and weight loss: it boosts your metabolism, prevents you from overeating, positively affects your mood and more (depending upon who you speak to).
However, these claims are often based upon dated, small-scale studies that follow spurious lines of reasoning. More recent studies have concluded that breakfast is no more important than any other meal when it comes to weight loss, and that skipping it can in fact lead to weight loss.
How to Lose Weight Without Dieting [Breakfast Edition]
According to Science Daily, the number one reason diets fail is because dieters underestimate the amount of calories they consume. In my opinion, the number one reason diets fail is because dieters want to eat things that most diets don’t permit. Fortunately, there are a number of things you can do to lose weight that don’t involve giving up your favourite foods. In this post we’re going to take a look at breakfast.
Continue reading How to Lose Weight Without Dieting [Breakfast Edition]
The Happy Truth About Yo-Yo Dieting
Yo-yo dieting gets a bad rap from most people. It has been linked to everything from lower life satisfaction to increased risk of mortality. As someone whose weight has fluctuated by around 30lbs during adulthood, I was keen to discover whether yo-yo dieting is as deadly as many claim it is. The truth I discovered was both enlightening and relieving.