Diet hopping
Diet hopping is a behavior which unfortunately sees a huge amount of people lack belief in themselves and frequently results in this sentence running over and over again in one’s internal dialogue –
“I just can’t lose weight”
Recognize it?
Been there?
If you’ve not said it yourself, you are bound to have been in someone’s frustrated company as they explain what they’ve done whilst also shaking there head in disbelief that they aren’t getting results!
What is dieting hopping?
If you haven’t figured it out already, dieting hopping is the practice of following one approach, then seeing/hearing of something significantly more appealing and then jumping onto that because it’s the saving grace which you’ve been looking for… Except it’s not.
Why is it so common? From my experience in working, and consulting with hundreds of clients it comes down to a number of reasons:
- Fear of missing out on the “latest approach”
- Lack of real investment and thus results into what you are doing right now
- Lack of understanding in what you are doing right now
How does Diet hopping hold back progress?
Diet hopping can hold back progress in an infinite number of ways. But in essence, I believe that with each instance it comes back down to 2 fundamentals things; calories & self-belief.
Calories:
There are many aspects in the sports science/health/fitness/weight loss industries which we are uncertain of. The recognition that we need a negative energy balance for weight loss is not one of those things.
So if you hop from slimming world to low carb, to 5:2, weight watchers, flexible dieting, cabbage soup or to whatever your favorite Instagram influencer is pushing these days, it’s unlikely that you will be controlling your caloric intake regularly enough to illicit progress. Never mind all the Mondays your waiting for to start a new plan.
Not controlling your calories so that you can create a negative energy balance will holt weight/fat loss in its tracks.
Self-belief:
Self-belief is vital. How many things have you not done or followed through with because you lacked belief in yourself? Wearing these tainted glassed will inevitably infect more aspects of your journey and what it consists of i.e. your diet & training.
In other words, negativity loves company.
This can also holt any aspect of your journey in its tracks.
How do we move forward from this?
I wish there was a blanket statement which I could give you, but ultimately there just isn’t!
But I can tell you this …
Collectively we have helped thousands of people nail down an approach which works for them. Every single time whatever approach we put in place it consists of these practices:
- A way to control/regulate calories
- Foods to improve health (vegetables, fruits, lean meats)
- It’s something our client could see themselves doing for a prolonged period of time (6 / 12 months or more)
Those fundamental principles could be placed together in an infinite number of ways depending on your needs.
However… Because we are able to sit down and discuss the needs of our clients in depth, create a level of understanding and empathy they become invested and educated in the process!!
Investment and education are priceless.
