Fad diets.

There is a reason all these diet companies are grouped under the term ‘fad diets.’

“Fad” – an intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, especially one that is short-lived; a craze

And this is exactly how I feel about these companies, the perfect definition of why fad diets don’t work. It’s all about short term and intense change. Change that is not sustainable and will burn out quickly. Change that’s just not ‘real’.

I heard a statistic the other day that I just had to include as a part of my thoughts on this. (And yes, I have fact checked this). Only 3% of diets work. 3%!! And 97% of dieters will put that weight back on. If that doesn’t tell you all you need to know about these gimmick diets, then I don’t know what will.

(As a disclaimer, I want to add that I am not against ‘diets’ in general. Making long term, sustainable changes to eat more veggies and fruit, cutting down on processed food and being more aware of portion control are all admirable life changes. And that’s great. The focus of this conversation is the companies who try and sell you the bars and the powders and the meal replacement snacks. I ain’t about that.)

But trust me, I get it! I get the instant reaction and temptation when you see ads that claim ‘lose 10 lbs in 2 weeks!’ and other crazy claims like that which make you think ‘my god this is too good to be true!’ Of course I want to transform my body that quickly but that’s not how the human body works and it just won’t last. More often than not people on these fad diets lose a lot of water weight or muscle by starving their bodies too intensely and those are areas we actually don’t want to lose weight from. What you really want to do is lose fat.

We have such a societal obsession with losing weight when that isn’t what we actually need or want to lose at all. If losing weight is the goal then you can chop a limb off right now and reach all your weight loss goals! (please don’t actually do that 🤣). Your weight is just one of MANY ways to measure your success in becoming a better and healthier version of yourself. We need to move the conversation away from losing weight and make it about losing fat. Fad diets pray on our obsession with weight as the only way of measuring success so that they can hide behind unhealthy results which you will just put back on. Rather than fueling your body in the right way to make long term changes.

And if you still don’t buy this argument, let me ask you this. Has a fad diet ever actually worked for you? If you answered yes, then let me change the question to, has it ever worked long term? Because if your answer is, ‘Yes! Slim Fast made me lose 10lbs in 8 weeks!’ and then you gained it all back again and more, then guess what, it didn’t work. I can tell you that with confidence because that is literally my story with fad diets and my experience of them.

It is not in the interest of fad diet companies for you to gain sustainable long-term change. If you really think about the structure of diet companies and diet products, you learning how to manage your health and your body puts them out of business. It is in their interest that you gain that weight back and more, and then believe that their milkshakes or their pills or replacement meals or WHATEVER is the only way back for you. And that’s just not true.

I’ve done every diet under the sun. The 5-2, Slim Fast, Weight Watchers, you name it I’ve done it. And I can tell you, you only develop an unhealthy relationship with food, your body, and your number on a scale. You end up defining yourself and your happiness for that day/week/month by that number. It becomes the focus of your life and you think about it all the time, mostly because you’re so bloody hungry. 🤣

One that I have actually never tried is Slimming World (because I came to my senses before this one came on the scene). I actually think it seems a little better than a lot of the others because at least it is encouraging you to eat whole foods and to cook for yourself. However, I will just point out that one of the HIDEOUS (in my opinion) elements of this diet is that you have to label unhealthy foods as ‘syns’ and if you eat them that’s like a black mark on your record and even by eating them there is a sense of guilt and shame associated with that. (And by the way, spelling it ‘syn’ rather than ‘sin’ you’re not fooling anyone, in my opinion that is quite a disturbing way to condition your mind to think about ‘bad’ food).

I get that a lot of people will be reading this and thinking ‘but fad diets do help people lose weight when they have a lot of weight to lose, and surely that’s a good thing!’ And yes, I would agree that if you have an unhealthy amount of fat on your body (I’m talking like 100lbs) and you lose that, then that is a good thing for your health. But I also don’t believe that a fad diet is the best way to do that. Because there is no system to maintain once you reach your goal. They sell the idea that you do the diet, reach your goal and then that’s it forever and you can go back to eating whatever you want. But health and fitness is not money in the bank. You don’t get to keep what you earn. You have to work on it every day and make real life changes to keep it. You’re not a ‘before’ and ‘after’ photo. There’s an after, after the ‘after’!

It’s also super dangerous to lose weight that quickly. These diets don’t teach you how to actually fuel your body and what choices to make in everyday life. They just teach you how to survive on their replacement products and don’t actually provide any health education. I know that for me when I used to prescribe to these diets, that even as I added these products to my basket I knew that they weren’t good for me. When you place your order for the Slim Fast shakes and mini chocolate bars and then the Weight Watchers replacement crisps and cakes and snacks, you’re just replacing one set of e-numbers and processed foods with another. That isn’t going to make you feel great and these foods won’t leave you feeling satisfied and healthy. On a deeper level the real problem with these replacement products is that at the time, if you had presented me with all these facts, I would say ‘I don’t care. I don’t care if I’m hungry and if this isn’t healthy or good for me. I just want to be skinny no matter the cost.’ And that mentality is the real crux of the issue, and why these companies can get away with peddling this crap. That mindset is so difficult to get out of when you’ve been conditioned into thinking that way. But it is ALWAYS better to focus on being ‘healthy’ rather than ‘skinny’. If you focus on health then weight loss will follow. It will take a little more time, but it will last a hell of a lot longer.

The fact is, there is no ‘quick fix’ and that’s what these companies try and sell you. But I get that it’s tempting! I spent the majority of my teen years and my 20’s chasing that quick fix that could turn me into a Victoria’s Secret model overnight. But if you do the same thing, over and over again and keep getting the same result (quick weight loss, temporary feel good feeling, and then right back to square one) then something must not be right. It doesn’t work.

The answer to being healthy and feeling good in your body is really very simple. It’s just a hard truth none of us want to hear. Eat in controlled portions of non-processed, heathy foods and exercise more. That’s it. That’s the secret. And it takes a bit of time. Sorry, but that’s life! That’s the way your body is designed to work. But if you commit to it, and really start to understand and listen to your body, then you will start to see long term sustainable change. And the more you start to make these sustainable changes, the more they will just become a habit and a new way of living that becomes easy to keep doing.

And when that happens it’s so much more rewarding and meaningful than eating stupid bloody 90 calorie chocolate bars and flavourless air filled crisp snacks! Because eating that cardboard crap just makes you miserable and bloody hungry all the time! And who really wants to live like that!?

All I can do really is speak to my own experience on this, and I know some people will disagree, and that’s your perogative. My only goal is hopefully to make people think twice about these diet companies, and really scrutanise who the real winner is.

I know that when I ate and drank these products I did lose weight, but I was miserable doing it. It was simply no fun. And then I put it all back on again, hated myself for that, and did it all over again. It’s a vicious cycle and only Slim Fast and WeightWatchers succeeded in taking my money.

Focusing myself on exercising regularly, making healthy choices, eating what I want little and often and most importantly portion control is what really makes the difference. Since I started down this route I am 15lbs lighter than I was before, and with it being a habit now I don’t find that difficult to maintain at all. And that was 2 years ago. So it takes a bit longer, but isn’t it more important that it works?! And that I am healthier and happier?!