Why Does Every Diet Work?
The 4 Core Principles to Every Diet
Every wonder why you see people getting results from every diet? You'll see success stories from the keto diet, paleo diet, fasting diet, and so on... why is that?
There are 4 core principles that you must follow for any diet to work. Those principles are making sure you eat real food, control your calorie intake (calories DO matter), focus on your protein and veggies, and consistency. Without following all 4 of these principles, the likelihood of a diet working is small.
Principle #1: Eat Real Food
Performing this first step is going to be HUGE when it comes to losing weight and shedding fat. You will start noticing a big difference in the first couple of weeks if you are not used to eating real food already. This is one of the first steps every diet out there will tell you to do.
Foods that come out of a box or can usually contain added sugars and preservatives to extend their shelf life. Eating sugar is ok but eating too much of it is not. Your body stores the extra sugar you consume as fat for energy later.
Try not to eat foods that come out of a box or can. If you do get foods that come out of those two things, then look at the ingredients that go into it. If you don't know most of the ingredients, then set it down and move on. Shopping along the perimeter of the grocery store will generally help you avoid those items.
Start adding foods like fresh produce, nuts, seeds, tofu, chicken, etc. into your daily diet and you will notice changes both internally and externally!
Principle #2: Calorie Control
The next principle is calorie control. When it comes to losing or gaining weight, calories do matter. I know there are diets out there that say they don't, and that is a complete lie. One reason why you may not have to count calories is because you are eating mostly vegetables like broccoli and chicken. When you are on a diet like that, then there isn't much of a point to count calories because your most likely not eating enough to make calories matter.
Calories are simply energy; food is simply energy/fuel for your body. If you consume more calories than what your body needs to function, then it will store the excess as fat, and this is the reason why calories matter. If you want to lose weight then you must eat fewer calories than what your body uses; Similarly, if you want to gain weight, then you eat more.
The tricky part is making sure you are consuming enough calories to sustain your everyday activities. Many people don't realize that if you are not eating enough, then your body might down-regulate itself to only expend the number of calories you are consuming. This is one reason why you may not be losing weight even though you’ve reduced your calorie intake. You may have cut it down too much.
Principle #3: Eat Your Protein and Veggies
Protein and vegetables play a vital role in all diets. They help with your gut, building muscle, growing your finger nails, and fat loss. If you are looking to lose weight, these types of foods have a major influence on that.
They influence weight/fat loss because of their thermal effect. This means that meat and vegetables require energy (calories) to break them down. For example, let’s say you ate a piece of chicken that is 200 calories. Protein requires about 20-30% of those calories just to break it down and digest, so of those 200 calories you just put in your mouth, you are only digesting about 150 calories. This can make a huge difference over the course of a day or week.
Foods that are complex and physically hard tend to have a higher thermal effect, so you should eat more vegetables and solid proteins whenever possible.
Principle #4: Consistency
The last core principle that every successful diet follows is consistency! For any diet and workout program to work you must be consistent. No one makes progress by only doing something 1-3 days out of the week. You must consistently put in the work each week and the results will follow.
Does this mean you need to eat the same thing every single day? Or workout for two hours every day? No!
You can get results by eating all different kinds of foods at any point of the day, and workout for 30 minutes to an hour a few days a week. You don't have to be so strict that you can't enjoy things. You want to have pizza? Great, eat it. You want to have cookies? Awesome, eat that too. You can enjoy these types of foods every now and then. You just need to consistently choose the healthier options more often.