Dieting and Diving: an Analogy

I think there’s a major understanding regarding the nature of diets and how they work.  Here’s what I mean: dieting (calorie restriction) is kind of like holding your breath—you can only do it for so long.  You should only do it for so long. 

In other words, perfect adherence to calorie restriction isn’t necessary to get results.  Think in terms of consistency, not perfection.

Let’s use a diving analogy.  Imagine I want to go check out some coral reefs.  I’ll be underwater most of the time—otherwise I’m not really diving.  But I don’t plan to spend an hour underwater without coming up for air--that's just not realistic.


In other words, successful dieting includes flexibility and/or planned “cheats.”  I didn’t understand this when I first started trying to get lean.  My progress suffered as a result.

Consider these facts:

*Weight loss and fat loss don’t happen overnight, but fat gain also doesn’t happen overnight.  In other words, you can’t gain pounds of fat from one meal.  The body simply can’t synthesize that much fat tissue in such a short amount of time.  Overnight weight gain/loss is more likely due to water loss or retention.

*Cheating on your diet gives you some much-needed psychological relief and helps keep you going until your next cheat.   

*An occasional increase in calories actually helps your metabolism.  It activates a hormone called leptin, which tells your body you aren’t starving and encourages it to keep burning fat resources.

*Truly effective diets intentionally fluctuate caloric intake to keep the body from rebelling against low calories and going into starvation mode.

Possible scenarios:

Scenario #1 I want to lose some fat, but I have one food I just can’t live without (mine is pizza).   I can approach this craving two ways:  I can let myself have pizza every week or two, or I can plan to do without it for three months.  Which one am I more likely to do? 

Scenario #2 The holidays are coming up.  I can begrudgingly stare at the goodies, or I can plan to eat whatever I want for one meal (or one evening).   Which seems more enjoyable and realistic?

If I give myself some flexibility, I can enjoy a high calorie meal (or day), give my mind/body a little boost, and get back on track again the next day.  But if I’m too rigid, I may see one cheat as a complete failure and give up altogether.

This is one thing I don’t understand about the Biggest Loser show.  They’ll take the contestants out to a restaurant after a hard week of training, then act as though one dessert will undo 6 days of hard training and dieting—nonsense!  I understand they are trying to train the contestants in making healthy eating choices, but they should explain “good cheating.”

How often should you cheat?  This depends, but most well designed diet plans include a half-day (or maybe a whole day) of high calories every week.  Low carb diets often allow you to eat lots of carbs every weekend to replenish your body’s glycogen stores (glycogen is the stored energy in the muscles/liver).

Conclusion:

Don’t think successful dieting means you have to completely give up on your favorite high-calorie foods.  You simply need to use some strategy in when and how often you eat them.  Don’t think an occasional cheat ruins your diet.  If done properly, it does just the opposite.