Diets Don’t Work

You’ve probably seen the statistics before.  90% of diets fail or 95% of dieters regain all their weight within a year.  It’s hard to say what the real numbers are, but one thing’s for sure.  We don’t succeed at keeping the weight off.  The CDC reports that more than 68% of the population is overweight and over 33% are obese (a serious medical condition).  Projections estimate that by the year 2030 over 50% of the U.S. population will be clinically obese.  In addition, we are seeing increases in high blood pressure, high cholesterol and type II diabetes.  In fact, estimates place the cost of treating obesity and obesity related conditions at over $190 billion.  These are all incredible numbers, but what’s really amazing is we spend over $60 billion annually on diets and exercise programs and this is the best we can do.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably tried a few diets “programs” over the years, and that’s not to say I didn’t lose weight.  I certainly did from time to time, but like the 95% statistic above I would ultimately gain it all back (plus some) and find myself looking for the next great weight loss idea.  I have a basement full of exercise equipment including a Bowflex, a treadmill and an elliptical machine.  Each one of these was going to be the answer to my weight problem.  In addition, I’ve joined Weight Watcher (twice) and bought several diet books on the South Beach Diet, the Shred Revolution, the Mediterranean Diet, Atkins, the 21 Day Diet, the Hollywood Diet and the list goes on.  Some of these I tried and some just collected dust on the shelf, but nevertheless, the end result was the same.  I never kept the weight off and eventually ended up heavier than I was before.

Is this the fault of the diets…not necessarily.  But I do believe the weight loss industry has made a fortune off watching us relapse over and over again.  In fact, you could probably make the case that they don’t really want us to succeed.  The occasional success story helps sell a few more books, but if we all got healthy their customer base would dry up.  Weight Watchers is even so bold as to offer a free lifetime membership to any member that reaches their ideal weight and stays there.  Think about that for a second.  They wouldn’t be in business long if your members were actually reaching their goal.

So what’s the problem?  Some of the blame can be laid on the marketing of these programs, and some of the blame frankly lies with us.  Programs like Nutrisystem are among the worst offenders.  They promise instant and amazing results while teaching us nothing about how to do it.  You may lose weight on the Nutrisystem plan, but what have you learned?  You’ve learned that people can lose weight eating Nutrisystem food, but you know little to nothing about how to do this yourself.  So you’re ultimately faced with the decision of either buying their specially prepared food forever, or cancelling and going back to the diet that got you there in the first place.  This may very well bring Nutrisystem a lot of repeat customers, but it won’t bring those customers any lasting results.  And there in lies the problem.

We believe we can buy a food plan, join a program, or read a diet book and then go back to doing what we were doing before.  While a lot of these diets may be flawed, that’s a topic for another discussion.  What is flawed is our assumption that we only need to make a temporary change.  We are all looking for a quick fix, a miracle cure, an easy way to “lose 10 pounds fast”, and as a result we are easy pickings for all the snake oil salesmen in the weight loss industry.  I have been working hard to remove the word diet from by vocabulary.  People ask me all the time “What diet are you on?” and they’re hoping that I will tell them the secret.  If they’re willing to listen, I will explain that it’s not a diet…it’s a lifestyle.  My decision to go ketogenic was not just about losing a few pounds.  It was about adopting a lifestyle with countless health benefits.  Once you realize the benefits of becoming keto-adapted, the decision to leave the carbs behind is an easy one.

If you’re looking to lose some quick weight, a ketogenic diet might work, but if you think you can go back to eating everything once the weight is gone, you will certainly be one of the 95%.