Weight loss – Why 95% Of Diets Fail

Today everywhere you look, quick fix weigh loss solutions are being sold and marketed as the Holy Grail. Unfortunately, losing weight is not all that easy, and many of the quick fix solutions do not have long-term benefits. As with most things in life, if you expect quick results, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. When you look at weight loss and the mechanics behind it, weight loss is simply just maths, energy consumed and energy burnt. If the burning of energy is more than the consumption of energy, then the body will use fat stores as energy, and you will start to lose weight, simple really.

The real problem with losing weight for most people is that they reduce the consumption of their food intake way too much in the first weeks. Doing this triggers the body’s survival mechanism to kick in to gear slowing your metabolic rate down. You may be aware that you are living in the 21st century with an abundance of food to access, but your body doesn’t. By reducing your food intake too much, your body naturally thinks that you are going to starve, so it slows your metabolism and energy consumption to preserve fat stores just in case you need them.

Now the biggest problem comes down the track in a few weeks or a few months when you may not be seeing the weight loss results you expected. You may feel disheartened so lose interest, or just fall back into your previous lifestyle routine and eating habits. If this occurs, you may find you put weight back on faster and sometimes even more weight. The reason this occurs is that your metabolism is now much slower and your energy consumption is greater giving you a positive energy intake which will be stored as fat.

The above summary outlines in very basic details why nearly 95% of diets fail. Your body is just trying to do the right thing by preventing you from starving, but its actions are making it more difficult to achieve great results.

I know how hard it can be losing weight, as I personally lost over 30kg after losing balance in my life. I worked too hard, had a bad lifestyle and just lost focus in other areas of my life. I know how easy it is to do, but I also know that if you are determined enough, you can achieve just about anything. I reduced from my weight from just over 100kg at my heaviest to a constant range weight range now of 70kg-75kg. I have gone also one step further by getting my fitness to the point that I can attempt to climb the 7 highest summits on each continent around the world. My best mate of I have completed 2 of the summits with 5 more to go. Having been overweight and not having the right balance in my life, I can now say that it is hard to ever imagine how I lived life my life before. The benefits of how I feel now are priceless, and I know there is no amount of money that can ever buy the feelings and the energy for life I have now. In the end, it was just plain hard work and determination, but the results and benefits are definitely worth it.

There are ways to combat the body going into the survival mode by slowing the metabolism, but I will cover these training and fitness methods in future posts on this blog under Weight Loss & Healthy Lifestyle, so stay tuned.