As the holiday season ends and the new year begins, many people start looking for ways to shed their extra holiday pounds, which often leads to dieting. You may even have experience with dieting yourself-there have been dozens of fad diets over the years, from Keto and Atkins to Paleo and "raw food." For many, these diets are nothing more than a brief struggle with food that eventually fails. Changing your dietary habits can be hard, but with meal planning, lifestyle adjustments, and mindful eating practices, you can succeed. Consider consulting a nutritionist or doctor for the best approach.
Healthy Dieting Vs. Unhealthy Dieting
The most important part of dieting is understanding the difference between healthy and unhealthy dieting. Going into a diet with the sole purpose of losing weight as fast as possible often creates unsustainable eating habits. While they may produce results in the short term, participants often gain the weight back once the diet is over. Some diets, particularly "fad" diets that don't take nutritional needs into account, can even be harmful. For example, the low-carb, high-fat Keto diet can cause low blood pressure and increase risks of heart disease in the long run.
Setting Realistic Goals
Like with any plan, it's important to set attainable goals for yourself. It may feel right to set high goals from the start so that you'll work harder, but in reality, it can have the opposite effect. Not setting goals and not planning meals can increase the temptation to cut corners and snack more.
The Importance of Education and Support
If you lack a support system while dieting, it may be difficult to stay motivated. Not being educated on proper nutrition and portion sizes can make it difficult to plan healthy, satisfying meals. Dieting can be tricky, but that's only if you go into it unprepared.
Educating yourself is the first and most important "how" when it comes to how to stay consistent with a diet. Learn about balanced nutrition, food groups, portion sizes, and the shortcomings of fad diets. Once you've educated yourself, set realistic dieting goals. Take into account your lifestyle and nutritional needs to ensure they're attainable. Setting smaller milestone goals in addition to your primary goal can create a sense of accomplishment as you go, which can help motivate you. For example, if your overall goal is to lose ten pounds, you can set a milestone goal to lose five pounds by the halfway point of your diet. If you're finding it difficult to stick to your diet, try seeking support from friends and family. You can also consult a nutritionist if you're struggling to balance your meals. Preparing healthy meals in advance will make it easier to avoid unhealthy food choices in the name of convenience.
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Mindful Eating
Have you ever opened a bag of chips to snack on while watching your favorite show and ended up finishing the bag without noticing? This can happen when you're too distracted to notice your body's "full" signals.
The Role of Whole Foods
Balanced diets come in all shapes and sizes, but most of them are centered on nutrient-dense, whole foods like fruits, vegetables, grains, and protein. One of the most important questions to ask yourself when starting a diet is, “Can I keep this up long term?” If the answer to that question is no, you could be embarking on a crash diet. But here’s the thing about crash diets - actually, the thing about diets in general, from keto to Atkins and everything in between - the results usually don’t last in the long run. Over time, most people who diet regain the weight they’ve lost, 2022 research suggests. Thus, when it comes to sticking with a balanced diet, try to resist the urge to focus too much on weight loss. Often, the healthy habits you instill by eating a nutritious diet are more important in the long run than the weight you’ve lost in a short period of time.
Seeking Professional Guidance
Simply put, adopting a balanced diet can be intimidating and challenging. There are so many diets to choose from that you may feel like you don’t even really know where to start. It seems like everyone under the sun has an opinion on what you should and shouldn’t eat. The good news is that you aren’t alone on this journey. Many trained professionals can help you determine the best path for you.
A registered dietitian can help cut through the misinformation and provide you with well-researched nutrition guidance that is customized for you and your lifestyle. Working with a trained professional provides a support system to lean on. It likewise ensures you’re getting accurate and up-to-date information about well-balanced eating, as well as how to best stick with it.
Personalization is Key
It’s not uncommon to hear about diets described as being the “best” or “healthiest.” Yet, no one diet works best for everyone. We each live in a unique set of circumstances influenced by genetics, our health, work schedules, family, cultural traditions, and more. No single diet can perfectly account for or accommodate so many individual factors. In the end, the “best” nutritious diet for you is the one that makes you feel your best and that you can stick with for the long haul. Sticking to a balanced diet means finding a way of eating that is not only nutritious but also that you find enjoyable, sustainable, and conducive to your personal circumstances.
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Minimizing Ultra-Processed Foods
Ultra-processed foods are those made through industrial processing. They tend to contain additives like sweeteners, thickeners, stabilizers, and other ingredients that make the foods last longer and taste better. Not only are ultra-processed foods tempting due to their flavors, but some research has found that even being in the presence of these types of foods can affect brain chemistry and behavior. Keeping your fridge and pantry stocked with nutrient-dense, whole foods - instead of restricting them - is a great way to keep your diet in mind and encourage yourself to eat those nutritious foods more often. Surrounding yourself with the foods you want to eat and learn to love increases your chance of success.
Strategic Snacking
Often, it’s the moments when we feel extra hungry and are tempted by a tasty treat that we forget about the nutritious eating plans we had in mind for the day. Though craving foods from time to time is completely natural, researchers have found that in moments of extreme hunger, our cravings tend to get even stronger. Keeping nutritious and filling snacks on hand is a great way to keep cravings at bay until your next full meal. Research from 2020 found that a hummus snack that is high in protein, and other high fiber snacks, can help keep you feeling full and reduce your snacking.
Some examples are:
- Fresh fruits and veggies
- Yogurt
- Popcorn
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Mixed nuts and nut butters
- Hummus or roasted chickpeas
- Whole grain crackers
Staying prepared by keeping nutritious and filling snacks on hand reduces the chance of straying from your healthy diet when hunger strikes.
The Importance of Moderation
Depriving yourself of the foods you love and crave can actually end up backfiring. In the short term, it tends to make your cravings for those foods even stronger, especially for people who are more susceptible to food cravings, according to some 2020 research. Other research has even found that using a non-dieting app to relearn satiety (feelings of fullness) cues led to weight loss and reduced food cravings in people with obesity. Rather than completely giving up the less nutritious foods that you love, try having them only occasionally while practicing portion control. It’s true that with moderation and portion control, there is room for all foods in a nutritious diet - even those that might seem like they couldn’t have a place.
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Avoiding the All-or-Nothing Mindset
A common barrier people encounter while working toward improving their diets is falling into an all-or-nothing mindset. An all-or-nothing thought might sound something like this: “Well, I’ve already ruined my diet for the day by having that piece of cake at the office party earlier, so I might as well forget my plans to cook at home tonight and grab takeout instead.” These thoughts usually view situations in black and white or as “good” and “bad.” Instead, try to look at each individual food choice you make during the day as its own. One less-than-ideal choice doesn’t have to snowball into a full day’s worth of similar choices. In fact, having high self-esteem and confidence in your ability to make healthy choices tends to be associated with better health outcomes, according to one study from 2019, so don’t let one small stumble bring you down. Instead of letting all-or-nothing thoughts convince you that anything less than perfection is a failure, view each new choice you make about your diet as a clean new slate.
Navigating Social Situations
For many people, potlucks, happy hours, and dining out are something to look forward to. But for someone struggling to stick to a new or nutritious diet, these events can feel like another hurdle to overcome. Plus, research suggests that our food choices in social settings - and what we see on social media - may be heavily influenced by the choices of the people around us. Simply put, it’s easy to overdo it when eating out, and maintaining a healthy diet while eating out can be very challenging. Still, there are ways to make it easier. Having a strategy in mind before you get to a restaurant or gathering can go a long way toward easing your mind and helping you feel prepared to navigate eating out.
Here are a few helpful tips for eating out:
- Research the menu before you go
- Eat a piece of fruit or a small snack ahead of time
- Stay hydrated during the meal
- Order your meal first instead of appetizers
- Take your time and savor your meal
Planning ahead for eating out is a great way to ease any stress or uncertainty you might feel about how you’ll stick to your balanced diet at a restaurant or event.
Monitoring Progress
Research from 2019 found that self-monitoring with phone apps is an easy and effective way to track your progress. It can be as simple as keeping a journal of the foods you eat each day, or as detailed as using a smartphone or web-based app that tracks your daily calorie intake, weight, activity levels, and more. When self-monitoring your progress, remember that weight loss and gain are not the only ways to measure how far you’ve come. In some cases, they might not be the best way to measure progress either.
People choose to follow balanced diets for many different reasons. For example, you might choose to focus on how your dietary changes have affected your physical or mental health rather than how much weight you’ve lost.
Some other questions to ask yourself to help measure whether your more nutritious diet is working are:
- Am I full and satisfied?
- Do I enjoy what I eat?
- Could I keep eating this way forever?
- How many healthy choices did I make today?
- How confident do I feel about my diet?
- Have I noticed any changes to my physical health?
- Have I noticed any changes to my mental health?
Measure your progress to assess whether your efforts are having their intended consequences. But tracking doesn’t have to mean logging every calorie in an app. Checking in with your body can be enough to help you stick to a nutritious diet.
Long-Term Commitment and Self-Compassion
Sticking to a more nutritious diet is a marathon, not a sprint. Learning the best diet for yourself takes trial and error, and some days will be easier than others, so try not to feel discouraged if it takes longer than you’d like for your new habits to set in. As long as you set realistic expectations for yourself, remain committed, and continue to reevaluate your progress, your diet is likely to keep moving in a positive direction. Forming new habits of any type takes time, and balanced diets are no different. When you’re feeling frustrated, try practicing self-kindness and refocusing on your long-term goals.
Additional Tips for Sticking to Your Diet
Here are some additional tips to help you stick to your diet:
- Plan for healthy eating: Just like anything else you want to achieve, you have to plan for healthy eating. You can also use time-saving tricks like buying pre-cut produce, using a slow-cooker or doubling recipes to ensure you have leftovers to freeze. Try to keep a list of quick, healthy meals and snacks so you don't get stumped when you are shopping and cooking.
- Make small changes one at a time: Don’t try to make too many changes at once. Small changes over time can add up to a big impact, and it is much more doable. By mastering small changes, you will gain confidence and little improvements will slowly become part of your lifestyle. Once you’ve incorporated a new habit, start on another one.
- Aim for progress, not perfection: Once you've decided to change your eating habits, you may feel that there is no room for mistakes. At some point, you will backslide and encounter setbacks. Remember that you are aiming for progress, not perfection. Try to view setbacks as a bump in the road and keep going.
- Motivate yourself every day: By reading a long list of reasons that you want to lose weight every morning.
- Eat everything sitting down, slowly, and enjoy every bite: Whether or not you feel like it.
- Stay accountable.
- Stop looking for the perfect diet or the perfect combination of foods.
- Eat in a very healthy way but allow yourself to have one favorite food, in moderation, every single day.
- Change your mindset about food and eating: Recognize that you can eat whatever you want whenever you want OR you can be thinner.
- Prove to yourself that hunger is never an emergency: (if you don’t have a serious medical condition).
- Skip lunch and snacks one day: Teach yourself the difference between hunger (that empty feeling in your stomach when you haven’t eaten for a few hours) and craving or the desire to eat (which you will feel in your mouth or throat). Ultimately, you want to just label what you’re feeling (hunger, craving, tiredness, boredom, or a negative emotion) and tolerate it without eating.
- Regularize your eating with a set plan of meals and snacks: Some people do well with no snacks, some with a snack after each meal, some with two snacks after dinner.
- Tell yourself that every time matters: It’s not necessarily the calories (after all, cookie crumbs are not very fattening); it’s the HABIT. Every time you eat something you weren’t supposed to, you strengthen your giving in muscle, which makes it more likely that the next time you’ll give in and the time after that and the time after that.
- Assess your readiness to change.
- Reward yourself for achieving smaller, short-term goals that will ultimately lead to achieving the long-term goal: Remember, taking any action toward a goal will fuel your motivation. Do not overwhelm yourself with a long-term or overly lofty goal. Set SMART goals to create an incremental, impactful, and sustainable journey toward the long-term goal. Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.
The Importance of Lifestyle Changes
Breaking old habits and forming new ones is not easy, especially when it comes to foods you’ve been eating your whole life. Our diets are complex systems influenced by biological, cognitive, and social factors, just to name a few. Hundreds of fad diets, weight-loss programs and outright scams promise quick and easy weight loss. But the best way to lose weight and keep it off is to make lasting lifestyle changes.
Long-term weight loss takes time and effort. So be sure that you're ready to eat healthy foods and become more active. Talk with your healthcare professional if you need help taking charge of stress. No one else can make you lose weight. You need to make diet and physical activity changes to help yourself. Make a list of reasons why weight loss is important to you. The list can help you stay inspired and focused. Maybe you want to boost your health or get in shape for a vacation. Think of your goals on days when you don't feel like eating healthy foods or moving more. Find other ways to stay on track too. It's up to you to make the changes that lead to long-term weight loss. But it helps to have support from others. Pick people who will inspire you. If you prefer to keep your weight-loss efforts private, take some steps to stay on course. Track your diet and exercise in a journal or an app. Also track your weight.
Aim to lose 1 to 2 pounds (0.5 to 1 kilogram) a week over the long term. Losing 5% of your current weight may be a good goal to start with. If you weigh 180 pounds (82 kilograms), that's 9 pounds (4 kilograms). Even this amount of weight loss can lower your risk of some long-term health conditions. It can help to set two types of goals. The first type is called an action goal. You can list a healthy action that you'll use to lose weight. For instance, "Walk every day for 30 minutes" is an action goal. The second type is called an outcome goal. You can list a healthy outcome that you aim to have. "Lose 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms)" is an example of an outcome goal. An outcome goal is what you want to achieve. But it doesn't tell you how to get there. An action goal does.
To lose weight, you need to lower the total calories you take in from food and drinks. One way that you can take in fewer calories is to eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains. These are known as plant-based foods. They're low in calories and high in fiber. Fiber helps you feel full. Eat at least four servings of vegetables and three servings of fruits a day. Have whole grains, such as brown rice, barley, and whole-wheat bread and pasta. Use healthy fats, such as olive oil, vegetable oils, avocados, nuts, nut butters and nut oils. Limit foods and drinks that have added sugar. These include desserts, jellies and sodas. Focus on eating fresh foods. They have more nutrition than processed foods. Processed foods often come in a box or a can. It's a good idea to be mindful while you eat. Focus on each bite of food. This helps you enjoy the taste. It also makes you more aware of when you feel full. Try to not to watch TV or stare at your phone during meals.
You can lose weight without exercise, but it's harder to do. Exercise has many other benefits. It can lift your mood, lower blood pressure and help you sleep better. Exercise helps you keep off the weight that you lose too. How many calories you burn depends on how often, how long and how hard you exercise. One of the best ways to lose body fat is through steady aerobic exercise, such as brisk walking. Work up to at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise most days of the week. Also aim to do strength training exercises at least twice a week. Any extra movement helps you burn calories. So think about ways to move more during the day.