Diet’s are set up for you to fail. It’s not that you are a failure, it’s literally that diets unequivocally, undeniably and indisputably DO NOT WORK. Every single piece of research on diets shows that NO ONE can sustain them. Not only that but anyone who tries, gains on average 5-10 pounds more than their pre-diet weight after coming off the diet. If you are sick of these up and down weight fluctuations, restricting yourself from foods you love and just plain being miserable trying to follow some crazy diet, then you definitely want to read this blog. Even if you don’t have these issues and would just like to be a little healthier, feel better about yourself and look a little better, then this is a must read this blog for you as well.
The research that shows how awful any diet is will never be popular. The diet industry is a billion dollar industry. There are medical weight loss clinics, and entire empires build on the fact that they know you will fail and try over and over again. This means more money in their pockets. What I will teach you in this blog is not complicated. It does not cost a ton of money. It is simple, effective advice that leads to long-term, sustainable weight loss and body composition changes. So what is this magical advice: MICRO-CHANGE YOUR LIFE!
We live in a society of instant changes and results. You want to talk to someone, call them now, even if you are driving. Better yet text them and they better respond within 2 minutes or you get bored. There are shows like “The Biggest Loser” that promote the absolute worst things in fitness. Did you know that almost everyone who has been on that show has gained all their weight back or more? You can’t take someone out of their environment, externally impose motivation, do nothing to change habits and lifestyle and drop them back in their lives and expect a miracle. Losing a bunch of weight quickly is unhealthy and not sustainable. One of my favorite sayings is that “people overestimate in the short term and under estimate in the long term”. That is why Micro-Change is the most amazing way to get long term, sustainable results.
Micro-changing involves keeping your current nutritional habits and changing one small thing at a time. Once you have made that one small change into a habit that you don’t think about, you change something else that is small. You don’t need to change anything about the way you currently eat. If your weight has stayed the same for the last few months then you are at a caloric/metabolic equilibrium. One of my favorite micro changes is taking two less bites at dinner. When I say this to people they look at me like I have lost my mind. When most friends or family ask for diet advice, they want a meal plan with calories and macros all laid out. Well, I could do this if I didn’t care about that person and I wanted to watch them fail miserably. However, I know a much better way.
Let’s break down what eating two less bites at dinner does for you. To start, you have to make no changes in what you eat. You simply have to do zero work and have absolutely no time commitment in this act. The only thing you have to do is eat two less bites of dinner than you normally would. Each bite of food, depending on what you are eating, is around 50 calories (assuming you aren’t eating salad for dinner). This means that you will save 100 calories a day with two less bites. Over a week, 700 calories and over a year, 36,500 calories. This is 10 pounds of fat in a year. That means by eating two less bites at dinner, not changing anything you are doing now other than that, you would be down 10 pounds in a year. This is what I mean by under-reacting in the long term. Everyone wants to starve themselves or deprive themselves for a month and lose 10 pounds and then put it all back and then some the next month. Instead, try a micro-change for a year and be happy, have fun and live your life the way you want as the weight comes off.
You can see why this isn’t something that many people talk about. It’s not sexy, it doesn’t need some special bar or “super” food to make it work. It just takes some mindfulness around the food you are eating and consistency. Not to throw too much at you but what if you nailed the two bites habit after a month. Then you added another micro change. Now, in a year you would be down 20 pounds. The best part is that you would be able to keep it off for your entire life because you didn’t loose the 20 pounds as part of some restrictive and ridiculous fad diet. How good does it sound to live the life you enjoy, have the foods you love and make these tiny micro changes over time and look great for the rest of your life?
What you have to remember is that these micro-changes do not yield fast, crazy weight loss and results right away. This is really hard for a lot of people to deal with because of the instant gratification build into our culture. What I can promise you though is that if you make a few micro changes to your nutritional habits over the next few months, the weight will start to drop off, you will be extremely happy and you will truly enjoy your life and your body. The best part of all of this greatness is that it will be sustainable for the rest of your life and we all need to be thinking long term when it comes to our bodies.