7 Habits of Highly Ineffective Diets — Strength by Jaime Barroso

I know you want to feel better in your skin. Maybe you want to look leaner and more toned…or maybe you just want to feel better about the way that you look without being too tied to a number on the scale…And well, you might be considering starting a diet (if you’re not already on one). But how do you know if you're considering an ineffective diet?

Let me help you out…look out for these 7 clues that a diet will not get you the long-term results you are looking for (and what to do instead).

7) It has the word "diet" in the title
Coming out of the gate swingin’ with this one! As a general rule, anything with the word "diet" in the title is not going to be effective long-term (and isn’t long-term success what we’re going for?). When you see the word "diet" think "short-term", "drastic" or "buy me". Don't get me wrong, not all "diets" are bad per se. Some can be good for short-term jump starts for a small population of people - however most will down-regulate your metabolism, leave you with no life-long skills to maintain your results, feeling restricted from life and are generally a money scam, which brings me to my next one...

6) Anything claiming to cleanse
Did you know that your body is a powerhouse?! Everything needed to digest, extract nutrients, and yes, cleanse, is already contained within the walls of your muscles and bones. The body has been a well-oiled machine for much longer than you or I have been on this planet. Yes, a poor diet can make you feel sluggish, slow your digestive system, cause you to retain water and make you feel like you need to rid yourself of the gunk... But the best cure for this is simple:

Eat more nutrient-dense foods
Drink 2-3 liters of water per day
Exercise 3-5 times per week
Aim for 7-12k steps per day

That’s the best “cleanse” you can do! I promise, your body will take care of you. Oh but your friend did a cleanse and lost 5 lbs in a week? That's mostly water weight and will come right back when your friend goes back to eating normally…

And aren't we talking about long-term sustainability here?...

5) It claims to give you results without knowing anything about you
Have you ever realized that we are all different? We have different body types, metabolisms, heights, weights, exercise intensities and lifestyles, genetic predispositions, likes and dislikes, mental and emotional battles… This must all be taken into account when making a dietary lifestyle change. Yep, I said it, dietary lifestyle change.

4) It promises desired results in an unreasonably short amount of time
You know those advertisements that show these amazing, dream-worthy transformations in weeks? You know the ones - the ones that get you to try the diet in the first place.

I really, honestly hate to break this to you but those photos depict one of three things:

Some are the small percentages of people that actually follow the program and get drastic results in a short time period (and often gain it back after…they won’t show you those pictures)
OR…the time period is a complete lie. For example, I have seen photos of postpartum women on a 4 week program with drastic results, yet the photos were 1 day and 4 weeks postpartum…they would have had drastic results even without a program!
OR…the actual photos are a complete fabrication. The amount of photo stealing and photo editing of clients’ photos (yes, photo editing of clients’ photos!) is unreal.

3) It restricts an entire food group
This one is simple - unless you have a medical condition or ethical reason keeping you from eating a certain food group (think: lactose intolerance, celiac disease, or vegans/vegetarians) you should steer clear of any diet that restricts an entire food group, such as carbohydrates, which are needed in the body to create energy. Or fats, which the body also uses for energy and hormone regulation. Just...no. You will find yourself vitamin deficient, sluggish and unhappy really fast. If you find yourself feeling like you have to cook separate meals for yourself and your family to accommodate your new diet, something's off.

2) Restricts or demonizes "bad" foods
Do you have a weakness for ice-cream? Chips? Popcorn? Or my personal favorite…Velveeta mac and cheese? Whatever it is, a healthy diet can and should include those foods in moderation! Mental health is just as important as physical health. I can guarantee you, labeling foods as "bad" and never eating them is a one-way path to obsession, binging, and staying stuck in that hamster wheel. Don't do it. Of course I'm not telling you to eat those things all day every day - in general many of those fun foods we crave are not nutrient dense and are high calorie. So work them into your diet in small amounts. I like to follow the 80/20 rule - 80% of the food I eat in a day is nutrient dense and fuel for my workouts and my life. 20% is simply fun and enjoyable, like an ice cream bar or a giant soft pretzel. It'll keep you sane. This brings me to my most important habit of an ineffective diet...

1) It has a negative impact on your metal health
This is the most important one, the most raw one. If you are following a new diet and find yourself depressed, obsessing, binging, or in any way feeling like the diet is taking from your well-being instead of adding to it, stop. This diet is definitely not for you and most likely, you need to work on eating intuitively before making any physical-results-based changes to your dietary lifestyle. Like I said, mental and emotional health are just as important as physical health.

So there you have it. Pretty simple. Does it seem like I just eliminated any diet you've ever heard of? I probably did. That's because my belief is that your diet, your diet not a diet, should support and enhance your lifestyle.

There are ways to manipulate your food intake to get you physical results without prescribing to any of the fad diets that are out there. Start by eating body-appropriate portions and getting in more protein and produce. Below is an image of our “Strength Plate”, which is where we start all clients off if they come to us struggling with nutritional foundations. This should be enough to get you started, but don’t hesitate to send me a message if you need further guidance for your unique situation.

You’ve got this!

- Jaime