What makes dieting hard

This was great until it wasn't, and I ended up on a CVS run for all the chocolate and Goldfish I could hold in two hands. Then, because I'd "ruined" my diet, I would eat as much as I could physically handle, because, "Why not? I already ruined it. Then, of course, I'd feel bad about the snacks I ate and return to my overly restrictive regimen the next day. This is a destructive cycle to be in, but it's something I see all the time with personal training clients.

An all-or-nothing mindset can keep you in a perpetual cycle of lose-gain-lose, not to mention shame and guilt around food. This all-or-nothing concept applies to fitness, too: If you've been The most effective workouts to get in shape in the least amount of time left and right but don't feel fitter or stronger, you might be doing too much.

Toning it down could -- counterintuitively -- be the answer to improving your fitness and playing the long game. Supportive friends, family members and significant others are critical to successful weight loss.

If I was asked to cite the most common reason for not sticking to a healthy diet from my past personal training clients, I would say stigma. That's right. As silly as it sounds, people really do get made fun of for eating healthy, especially in regions where food is an integral part of the culture.

Growing up in southern Louisiana near New Orleans, I experienced this very often when I decided I was making changes to my diet. At family gatherings and social outings, I'd get comments like, "That's all you're eating? It's not fun to be ridiculed or scoffed at, especially for things you care about like your health! This is why a solid support system is key to long-term weight loss. Without it, the journey can feel lonely and intimidating.

If you currently feel you lack a support system, try having open conversations with your friends, family and partner about it. You can make it clear that they don't have to change their eating habits if they don't want to, but that your health means a lot to you and you'd appreciate it if they didn't mock or downplay your hard work. If an IRL support system isn't working out, turn to online communities that promote both health and body positivity. These communities emphasize health without emphasizing weight, which is helpful because when you focus on the health outcomes, you'll reach your happy weight with ease.

Exercise is important for an overall healthy lifestyle, but it's hard to lose weight from exercise alone. If you're at all attuned to the wellness industry, you'll know this saying: " Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym. You just can't out-exercise a poor diet. Exercise should definitely be part of your overall approach to weight loss because it's proven to aid weight loss not to mention its long list of other health benefits , but it's difficult to lose weight from exercise alone.

Many people overestimate the number of calories they can burn from their workouts -- it's probably a lot less than you think.

For example, a pound man will burn less than calories during an intense, hour-long weight lifting workout. In other words, there will never be a time when you're done eating healthy, at least not if you want lasting weight loss. In the end, it's not about cutting out everything you love. You can still enjoy your favorite foods, just not every day. It really comes down to being willing to take an honest look at your diet and, even if you just change one thing at a time, figuring out how you can reduce the calories you're eating.

Contrary to popular myth, burning 3, calories will not guarantee exactly one pound of weight loss. However, cutting 3, calories each week can still be an effective long-term weight loss strategy. If you want a healthy life , you have to be willing to change how you live. It doesn't mean changing everything overnight, but simply being open to new ways of doing things. Among some things you might need to change for a healthier life:.

Sometimes you can't control the things around you. At work , you may be surrounded by temptations — donuts, vending machines, coworkers bringing junk food, and the like.

That's just one thing you have to deal with, but what about your home? That might mean spending some money on home workout equipment , setting up a corner of your house for your gear, or commandeering the TV a few nights a week to do an exercise video. Set up an environment that encourages those healthy choices and reminds you of them. Sometimes, just walking into your kitchen and seeing a bowl of fresh fruit may be enough to remind you of what you're trying to accomplish.

While getting healthy may be something you're doing on your own, it's a big help to have a support system. Get weight loss support from friends and family who understand what you're doing and are willing to participate or help.

If you have a spouse who wants to continue eating foods that tempt you, you need a plan to deal with that so you can still reach your goals and keep your relationship together. Try to surround yourself with people who support what you're doing and avoid those people who don't. A workout buddy is also an excellent idea for support. Consider forming or joining a weight-loss group. Ask friends, relatives, or co-workers to join you.

If you have other reasons for being overweight, maybe past hurts that you've used food to deal with, depression, or other problems, it's hard to lose weight. For many, food is a comfort and something they have relied on all of their lives to help them deal with emotional problems. A counselor can help you learn more about emotional eating and how you might be doing it without realizing it. Be willing to learn why you make the choices you make and to confront them. To find a qualified weight loss counselor in your area, speak with your doctor or use the online locator provided by the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy.

If you've set impossible goals, you are guaranteed to fail. Weight loss becomes hard to achieve if you feel like a constant failure. No one is going to feel very motivated if they feel like a failure all the time.

If that's how your weight loss experience is, it's no wonder you keep quitting. The key is to set reasonable goals. What is reasonable is different for each person depending on your genetics, eating habits, exercise, and metabolism, to name a few. You're better off setting a long-term goal, like losing weight or competing in a race. Then focus your attention on daily or weekly goals.

Your weekly goal might be to get in three cardio workouts , minimum. Pick things you know you'll achieve so you're always successful. It can be as small as you like, as long as it's reachable. You hear a lot about lifestyle changes , but it's daily choices that really test you. What happens if you have to work late and you can't get to the gym?

What if you get stuck in traffic and miss your fitness class? Any number of things can happen in a day that may throw you off track. The trick is to be flexible. It helps if you're always prepared. Keep workout shoes in the car so you can stop off at the park for a quick walk. Keep some food handy, so if you get stuck in traffic, you get a snack before your workout. Often people skip workouts because something comes up and they simply aren't ready for it or they aren't willing to give themselves other options.

If you can't do a minute workout, give yourself permission to do what you can, even if it's 10 minutes. Something is always better than nothing.

You will not be perfect every day. All self-sabotage does is hold us back, and it can often be a reflection of some kind of fear. Be aware that at the start of any diet, if you experience considerable weight loss this will be a reflection of water loss from glycogen stores. The weighing scales is a bit of a double-edged sword; it can be incredibly motivating and it can be incredibly disheartening. If you find that you get a bit obsessed with the scales, set an intention to weigh yourself no more regularly than once a week, or forget the scales and focus on the feel of your clothes such as your waistband.

Your ultimate goal should be to keep focusing on any underlying problematic eating habits and keep tackling those, rather than simply fixating on what the scales is saying. Once you make consistent, positive changes to your eating habits, weight loss is likely to follow anyway. If a person has a lot of weight to lose they might see their weight goal as huge and unsurmountable, making it difficult to feel motivated to do anything about it.

Break your goal into smaller and more achievable chunks such as lots of individual weight loss goals of, for example, pounds- this way you can see progress each time you reach a goal, which will help to maintain motivation. Perhaps they want to lose weight by a specific date such as a wedding or holiday- they might not give themselves much time to lose the weight and resort to extreme measures such as VLCDs.

Although people do lose a lot of weight quickly on such diets and find the rapid weight loss results exciting and highly motivating, VLCDs can be very anti-social and are therefore hard to fit into a busy social life. Some such diets might prohibit alcohol, for example, and if a person really enjoys alcohol, having to cut this out completely can be hard to sustain for more than a few weeks, or even days, making it hard to stick to the diet plan.

VLCDs can make eating out difficult, or if a person does attend restaurants they might take a diet food pack with them and ask for hot water in the restaurant to hydrate their food pack. And if they do stick to it, how sustainable will the weight loss results be at the end, especially if they go straight back to their old eating habits again? Some people do complete VLCD plans and manage to maintain their new weight long-term, but in many cases weight gain is inevitable if they go back to their old eating habits because the diet plan was in such contrast to their usual way of eating.

We can almost become blinkered and stop thinking for ourselves. Mindful eating is about getting in tune with your internal cues to eat or stop eating. If we embark on a strict diet plan with rigid rules we can end up placing ourselves in a mental cell of deprivation.