Diets don’t work

In a major meta analysis at McMaster University by Gordon Guyatt of 22,000 people, the scientific evidence showed that all the benefits of all the popular diets, Atkins, Paleo, Zone etc fade after 12 months.

After 12 months the participants in the study:

• Regained the weight they’d lost.
• Lowered blood pressure and cholesterol that had been achieved by the diet initially had reversed.

Why do all the popular fad diets stop working after 12 months?

It seems to be that most people can maintain a change in diet in the short term, but rarely, really change their habits in the long term. Often after 12 months or earlier they’ll go back to the way things were and their health will ultimately do the same.

So, how do you really change you diet and lose weight and keep it off for good?

The most important thing is to really change your eating habits, don’t go for the quick fix diet.  It takes anywhere from 3 weeks to 6 months to really change a habit, (depending on the person), so sticking to a change in lifestyle needs effort and thinking until it becomes a natural thing to do.

Our diet recommendations:

Keep it simple! We recommend to make the following simple changes to your diet:

• ¾ of the food on your plate should be vegetables/fruit (low-energy carbohydrates)
• ¼ should be low fat protein (less than 10% fat, such as chicken breast or <10% fat lean mince)
• Be accountable.  If you see someone as a regular basis, such as one of our Physiotherapists or Exercises Physiologists, a dietitian or Clinical Nutritionist, you are more likely to stick to the program as you are accountable