Fat loss, why diets fail?

On a daily basis we here about a new absolute diet that someone is going to follow.

‘I’m only going to eat anything that is below 5% fat’

‘I’m eating Paleo’

‘I’m not eating wheat’

The word diet invokes various thoughts and responses. People love becoming absolute and will buy into regime and follow it religiously ….until they break! The sport of boxing has a lot to answer for. With a large proportion of our team actively involved in competing or coaching elite level boxing, we are involved with one of the worst sports in the world for encouraging rapid weight loss and short term quick fixes. These conflict with all modern and progressive thoughts on health and optimal fitness,

It doesn’t matter if you are going Whole Food, Paleo, Vegan or Atkins. Here are a few basics you need to understand that you may have been misled on, or you flat out ignored?

Calories In Vs Calories Burnt controls weight loss/ gain. Every successful fat loss diet follows the same principles – they manipulate energy intake and output to create a mild calorie deficit.

You can’t diet all the time. Spending too much time dieting – avoiding certain foods, certain macronutrients, and constantly underrating – this will ruin your relationship with food and make it impossible for you to keep off the fat that you lose.

You must take a gradual approach and be progressive. To lose fat you need to create a Calorie deficit but going to extremes is never the answer.  You should start off with a smaller reduction in calories and experiment with cycling calories over the course of days and weeks.

Exercise to get better – NOT to burn Calories.  Performance has to be a driver.  While increasing your activity levels will burn more energy, using exercise as a way to burn calories is kind of missing the point.  You should exercise to improve your athleticism and health, NOT for the Calorie burn.