The Truth About Diets

It's fair to say that the majority of us have tried at least one diet over the years, be it a weight loss mission or
a super-health quest. Most of these diets are publicised in magazines, books, television and other various media outlets and claim to offer astounding results. However a shocking 95% of all diets fail, with the majority of dieters not only regaining the weight they'd lost, but gaining even more weight once they stopped the diet. How can this be?

Is this down to overeating or is something else at play here?

When we diet, we inevitably end up cutting out carbohydrates (yes, there are various weight loss diets out there that don't advocate carb-cutting, and I'll come to that shortly). When you cut out carbs, or even reduce them to just below your body's carbohydrate needs, your body essentially recognises a starvation period. Carbohydrates provide fibre, sugar and energy. When these elements aren't present in our daily diet our bodies shut down. We get most of our energy from carbohydrates, and just to put this into context here are a few everyday carbs you'll probably be eating: all vegetables, all fruits, cereal, oats, pasta, rice, potatoes, noodles, crisps, chips, biscuits, cereal bars, sugar added to any foods or drinks, cakes, pulses, beans... chances are you're eating a lot of carbohydrates every day - which is good! Your body needs carbs! Obviously fruits, pulses, beans and vegetables are much more nutritious and are utilised more efficiently by your body than cakes, crisps and biscuits, but it's important to recognise how many carbs your eating in order to put these faddy diets into context.



Many diets, such as the 5:2 (which I have reviewed here), the Atkins, the vast majority of those found in women's magazines, practically all 'miracle' or 'quick weight loss' diets and even many of the diets labelled as 'healthy', severely reduce carbohydrates. So what is the big problem with cutting out carbs?

When we eat a carbohydrate it is broken down into glucose and utilised for energy and other jobs around the body including building and repairing cells and neural networks, muscle reparation, DNA formation and much more. When our bodies have used as much glucose as they need it is stored in our muscles and liver as glycogen, a water-soluble (i.e. it weighs more than fat) molecule. Glycogen can be quickly broken down back into glucose and used as energy (as well as for its many functions) in times of starvation. So, if you were to embark on a diet which restricted carbohydrates (and remember, it's not necessarily going to be named a "low-carb diet" on the front cover of the book or at the heading of the magazine article), you would reach a point within the first couple of days at which your body had used its entire store of glycogen.

As muscle weighs more than fat, and glycogen is stored in muscle, losing glycogen results in a sudden and extreme drop in pounds on the scales. This is why diet books and the creators of fad diets can, unfortunately, claim that their regime leads to fast weight loss. Technically they're telling the truth. Unfortunately they're relying on your body entering starvation in order to make that claim.



Any diet which advises you to reduce or cut out carbohydrates is not to be trusted. Don't get me wrong, if an overweight person were to embark on a weight loss diet they would have to reduce their carbohydrate intake. However this must be balanced with other essential nutrients and not fall below their body's minimum carb requirement.

When you have severely reduced or completely cut out carbohydrates from your diet, you will indeed experience a very noticeable drop in pounds and, sadly, this is what these diet books and creators rely on. This weight loss is due to muscle depletion and the depletion of essential energy stored in your liver; it is not fat loss. When you then re-introduce carbohydrates into your diet, no matter what the source is - vegetables and fruits, for example - you will regain the weight simply because your muscles and liver are re-building their vital energy stores. And this is why fad diets don't work. No matter how they are packaged, if a diet claims to help you lose "7lbs in 7 days" or anything similar, it is relying on your muscles becoming rapidly depleted.

What about non-carb-restrictive diets?

So what about the diets that allow you to eat carbohydrates, such as Slimming World and Weight Watchers? Unfortunately many of my clients claim to have been successful on these diets. But what these diets advocate is overloading your body with sugar. This leads us to a conundrum: sugar makes us gain weight yet it is satiating, meaning when we eat it we are quickly full up and don't crave any more.

Sugar is, in many ways, the dietary devil. It contains no calories - i.e. it doesn't give our bodies useful energy that can be used for cell restoration, for example - yet it causes the release of insulin. When we produce vast amounts of insulin and have vast amounts of sugar circulating in our bloodstream, our blood sugar levels peak and suddenly dip, causing us to crave even more later on in the day when our blood sugar levels dip. Slimming World and Weight Watchers, for example, rely on point systems, or "Free Foods, Healthy Extras and Syns" (for a start, I strongly believe that no food, no matter how unhealthy, should be regarded as anything synonymous with "sin" - that is the basis for making any dieter feel guilty and will inevitably feed any potential low self-esteem).

Unfortunately we're being taught that food is a 'sin'.

Slimming World's "Free Foods" are of course perfectly healthy, as are most of their "Healthy Extras" - in
moderation. However their "Syns" are allowed at any time of day and in any form you like. A chocolate bar for breakfast? That is considered ok providing it doesn't go over your "syn" limit for the day. I recently saw a food diary that showed a person eating three 'Freddo' chocolate bars for breakfast because Slimming World allows it. No healthy weight loss diet would advocate this. What they're doing is keeping you happy; you get your chocolate fix (which I don't disagree with, just not at 7am!) and you flood your body with sugar. This causes happy hormones dopamine and beta-endorphins to be released which, in turn, floods the body with relaxation, happiness and satisfaction. In turn, this makes you feel like you can continue with the day and, essentially, stick to their diet. And let's not forget - they are charging you money for this; they are charging you money whilst claiming to help you to lose weight whilst essentially feeding you chocolate for breakfast.



Weight Watchers have even launched their own brand of foods ranging from breads to crisps to cakes and biscuits. Yes they are all low fat but if you look at the labels, they are in fact high in sugar than any of their competitors. Why? Because they know that sugar tastes good and releases feelgood hormones. I.e. they know how to get they customers addicted. They also know how easy it is to slap on a "low fat" label and entice anyone who may be vulnerable to their marketing tactics (after studying marketing at university I can honestly say the tactics used by such companies are disgusting).

The purpose of this article is to let you make an informed and empowered decision. Your body is your own and it is up to you how you nourish it, but it is so important that you are aware of the deceitful marketing tactics used by those who wish to make money out of our body insecurities. Be mindful of the advice these companies are giving you; are their products low-fat yet laden with sugar (i.e. carbohydrates) or is their advice to cut out or severely reduce carbohydrates (i.e. causing you to lose essential muscle- and liver-mass?).


How Many Carbohydrates Do You Need?

We need to obtain 45% to 65% of our calories from carbohydrates. You may find the following chart helpful in determining how many carbohydrates you should consume each day in order to maintain a healthy balance between the individual nutrients.

Activity Level	Maintain Weight	Lose Weight	Gain Weight
Sedentary	190g - 275g	135g - 195g	245g - 355g
Lightly Active	220g - 320g	165g - 235g	275g - 400g
Moderately Active	250g - 360g	190g - 275g	300g - 440g
Very Active	275g - 400g	220g - 320g	330g - 480g