Six Diet Truths to Aid in Healthy Weight Loss

You meal planned. You threw out all your junk food. You might have even started a food journal. But a few weeks into your brand-new diet, and you’re probably starting to get tempted by the convenience of food delivery or drive-throughs.

Even though 45 million people go on a diet each year, 95 percent of those diets eventually fail. So, what can you do?

There are a lot of diet myths out there, so let’s start by getting to the truth.

*Disclaimer: Blue Cross in no way suggests or promotes unhealthy eating practices like diet pills or detoxes. You should always consult your doctor before making changes to your diet.

Truth #1. Diets will always be temporary.

Diets are advertised as lifestyles, but there aren’t many people who can truly commit to a strict diet the rest of their lives.

Even if you were able to successfully complete these for a month or a year, once you reach a “goal weight,” it’s difficult to keep up that momentum forever. And that’s where you’ll gain back the pounds that you shed with your strict food intake. Instead, focus on losing weight through maintainable habits so that you’re more likely to maintain the weight loss.

Truth #2. A cleanse or detox may help you drop pounds quickly, but it’s just water weight.

Liquid diets or extremely low-calorie programs are certainly going to make you lose weight quickly, but in an extremely unhealthy way. They only rid your system of excess water weight, not burn the fat that you truly want gone. It’s a quick fix, but that weight will likely return after the detox is over, and you could end up with long-lasting poor effects to your health.

Truth #3. Diet pills are not a shortcut to healthy weight loss.

The diet and weight loss industry is making $70 billion a year, according to the research firm Marketdata. The industry saw a consumer need, and they responded by selling millions of supplements, meal replacements and “miracle pills” every year.

However, the truth is that there’s little to no scientific evidence to prove the effectiveness of these products. Don’t let the before and after photos on the bottle convince you that there’s a shortcut to weight loss, diet pills can be very dangerous and harmful to your body.

Truth #4. Fruits and veggies are essential to any diet.

If you focus on the basics of eating right and in smaller quantities, you don’t need to subscribe to a food program.

Eat more produce, limit processed sugars and flours, increase water intake and cook more rather than eating out. When it comes to losing weight successfully, the health community agrees on these simple steps.

Truth #5. Alcohol is full of empty calories and sugars.

Even when you’re focused on weight loss, drinking alcohol could lead to more weight gain. Alcohol makers are not required to put nutrition information on their labels, and thus you may not always consider how many calories you’ve added to your daily intake by having a drink.

To educate yourself, use this alcohol calorie calculator from the National Institutes of Health.

Truth #6. Your environment and lifestyle matter.

Consider your commute, work-life balance and location to healthy food options. Do these negatively impact your ability to meal plan, exercise and engage in other healthful choices? If so, it might be time to make some changes.

Understanding these truths as you’re working to lose weight is key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle overall. This time of year is when you’re tempted to deprive yourself or look for shortcuts, but ultimately your focus should be on developing healthy habits and considering what else is affecting your overall wellness.

So, don’t beat yourself up if you’ve lost steam on your eating resolutions. Instead, beat the resolution diet hype and develop better, more sustainable eating habits all year long.

Did any of these truths surprise you? For healthy recipes and more food guidance, check out ahealthiermichigan.org.