In a world filled with diet trends and quick fixes, many people motivated by weight loss goals or a desire to improve health, may find themselves caught in the cycle of restrictive diets – an exhausting mindset that often involves saying “no” to more things than you can count, and lead to a love-hate relationship with food where everything seems either off-limits or loaded with guilt.
A common belief fuelling restrictive diets is thinking that some foods are bad, while others are good. And that “bad” foods inherently make you gain weight. Within this mindset, foods often labelled as “bad” tend to be those rich in calories, sugars, or fats. Things like chocolate, cookies, or fried foods, as well as carbohydrate rich foods like bread and pasta often get blamed for being contributors to weight gain.
If you’ve ever gone down the restrictive diet route, you might recognise the long lists of foods to avoid, eliminating entire food groups, or adopting extreme dietary rules. But as I always say, a temporary way of eating only yields temporary results. Do you love bread and cant see yourself cutting out bread from your life forever? Then that is probably not the right strategy for you. And good news – you don’t ever have to avoid or completely cut out foods you love, no matter your health and fitness goal(s).
Allow me to elaborate..
I too, used to believe certain foods was bad and off limits. And one very important thing that helped me break free from this mindset, end yoyo dieting forever, and be able to enjoy all my favourite foods while not compromising my goals, was learning more about how the body works, and how food works.
Let me teach you a concept that will change the way you look at food and dieting forever.
Energy balance
Energy balance refers to the relationship between the calories you consume through food and the calories your body expends for its various functions and activities. If you consistently consume more calories than your body needs, you gain weight over time. Conversely, if you consistently consume fewer calories than your body requires, you experience weight loss.
The key factor is the overall balance between the calories taken in and the calories burned, influencing whether your weight increases, decreases, or remains stable. It’s a fundamental principle in understanding body weight dynamics.
Extremely oversimplified, this means that you can eat whatever you want, but as long as you don’t exceed your body’s energy needs, you will not gain any weight. And no, this is not me telling you to live on only donuts or ice cream (you’d likely not you feel your best), but it does mean that we can cross them of our black-list and stop fearing that individual food items will cause weight gain.
Truly understanding the concept of energy balance, helped me find peace with food and motivated me to allow my fear foods back into my diet. All I gained was a newfound sense of food freedom (not weight) and all the wonderful benefits that come with it.
I discovered that maintaining or even losing weight can coexist perfectly with enjoying all the foods that bring me joy – nutritious and less nutritious. In addition, the fear of falling off track has become a thing of the past as I’ve crafted a diet that I personally genuinely love and don’t feel the need to cheat on or break free from.
Eat what you love, Love what you eat
It is commonly said that the best diet is the one you can stick to, and I love that. I’d like to say that the best diet is the one you dont even know youre on. It should feel effortless and enjoyable. You don’t need to sacrifice health for pleasure, or pleasure for health. In fact, pleasure and satisfaction, especially with food, is a crucial component to being successful with your nutrition.
Weight is complex topic, and weight management involves numerous factors beyond individual food items. But the laws of energy balance always apply. There are no good or bad foods, just food. And while some are less nutritious than others – they can all have a place in your diet.
Ready to find your balance with food and learn how to get results while eating the foods you love without a side of guilt and shame? Many of my clients re-discover their love for food and learn how to incorporate their favourite foods more often instead of avoiding them. And you can too. Its time to leave fear, guilt and food rules behind and ultimately, say good bye to restrictive diets forever.
