Why Extreme Diets Don’t Work

I’ve seen a lot of extreme diets out there. My Mom thankfully was never into the extreme, only eat grapefruit stuff, but she did just about every diet plan out there. So I grew up observing each plan and how well it worked while she was on it.

Now I am a fitness trainer and a lot of them hitting their goals has to do with diet. So again, I talk to people that have done a lot of the extreme diets they read about that they swear worked for someone they know.

Lets add in the crazy friends that have done the really, weird extreme diets and you can call me pretty well rounded in observing this issue.

As an observer I’ve seen why these diets don’t work.

1. No follow through. I touched on this with the very first paragraph. I observed how well each plan worked WHILE my Mom was on it. Once she got off of it, everything came back. Some times slower than others. But since these plans were not made to follow forever, there has to be an integration into real eating.

2. They aren’t balanced. Most extreme diets have to do with cutting one aspect of our nutrition out completely. Our bodies are more balanced than that. We don’t run on just one substance. When you take away one substance or even put too much of another in our bodies, we get sick. That’s all there is too it. Our bodies will try to find that substance any way it can or things will shut down.

3. Emotions aren’t dealt with. Let’s be frank. The real reason that 98% of people are doing extreme diets is to lose weight. By not dealing with why you put on the weight, nothing is going to keep it off. You have to figure out why your eating is so unhealthy before you can keep it off. So you will just go back into your old habits again if you have dealt with the issue.