When you are promised quick or even lasting results from a diet this new year, for both your physical and mental health, I need you to bear in mind these few things. Aside from the idea that diet culture is still leading us all to believe that living in a smaller body should be our goal, but that’s a blog that’s on its way. Today we chat about approaches to weight loss goals, another day we can chat about those weight loss goals coming from a healthy mindset, not simply what society thinks we should all look like.
I have said it before and I’ll say it one thousand times again, and I know it isn’t the best business model for me, but what I truly care about is people, their health and ultimately, their happiness – there is no magic approach for weight loss or weight maintenance if that is your goal. A rule I often use is that if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.
The ‘stuff’ that works when it comes to weight loss is not exciting – it’s gradual, sustainable habit change over time to nutrition, physical activity choice, lifestyle behaviours and perhaps most importantly, our mindset.
So why shouldn’t we be choosing rapid weight loss? Well, aside from not being sustainable and therefore not producing lasting results, and in reality, who wants to partake in a nutrition protocol that leaves them in the same position as they were when they started a few months down the line? They can damage our mindset and our relationship with food while also often depriving the body of essential nutrients compromising your long-term health. They are restrictive, do not allow for the enjoyment of life and are therefore miserable and difficult to maintain, not to mention the fatigue and other physical symptoms often involved.
Evolutionarily, our bodies are not designed to lose weight quickly; without going into all of the nitty gritty here, rapid weight loss is often largely water loss, so the proponents of these diets are often selling you a dream, you see ‘results’ but really what you’re after is body fat loss, not ACTUAL weight loss if that makes sense? I am yet to come across many individuals, maybe one or two for medical reasons, that want to lose weight ACTUALLY for the number, but rather it’s the feeling or aesthetic that they believe will come with that number.
Restrictive (often named) diets tend to exclude particular food groups which is very harmful to many of us, both physically and mentally, provided we are not intolerant to something. If you are and need to exclude a food group, I would hope that you have the guidance of a dietician in order to do that. Otherwise, it isn’t positive for our mindsets, our relationships with food or our physical bodies to be cutting out things that can provide us with nutrients. We have spoken in previous blogs about foods not being ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in isolation. All foods provide us with something for our health, even if not absolutely optimal for our physical health according to our goals, they might play into our mental or social or even financial health for example. Missing out on potentially essential vitamins and minerals by cutting out things like grains, diary or fat for example from our nutrition is damaging to say the least.
Along the same lines, I wholeheartedly believe that there is no such thing as a superfood. This is another ‘too good to be true’ moment – if there was a superfood, do you not think that by now we would all be walking around like the absolute epitome of health? There is no scientific evidence to suggest the existence of superfoods causing weight loss or any other magic health outcome for that matter.
It is really important to notice where the information about the diets that you might consider is coming from. Quite often we read in the media about the latest diet trend coming from scientific backing from a ‘doctor’ (in what we often don’t know!!) or another authoritative figure. When we delve down into the validity and reliability of said research, it’s concerning and absolutely virtually never something I would be basing my future nutrition decisions on. The evidence is often flawed and the source of information potentially unreliable, even though I’m sure they believe their own claims!! We should never be relying on the media for our nutrition knowledge.
Something which is SO important is that if a particular diet promotes a particular product for you to buy into, it NEEDS to be an immediate red flag! Bars, meal replacements, powders, tablets, lollypops – should all go in the sea never to return! I have a blog coming up about weight loss medication which, if you’re interested, I LOVED writing and will get it to you ASAP, but often these things claim to suppress appetite or speed up metabolism – the claims are either incorrect or the mechanisms by which they work are vastly unhealthy for our glorious bodies and minds. They are also often costly and not backed by science!
All of this is, of course, vastly unhelpful if we don’t explain what we SHOULD do if we have a weight loss goal?
Well first and foremost I would love to explore WHY we have that goal and that’s REALLY important as to how we approach moving forward from a physical and mental longevity standpoint.
Beyond there, the reality is, what we need to do is look at your lifestyle and find ways that we can build more optimal habits for your goals into your life in a sustainable way – and that will look different to you than it does to me. That is where coaching can come in and be super effective, we get so caught up in the noise of what is ‘best’ for us, but the reality is we are all so different, have different goals, needs and priorities and what works for one will not work for another so that deep dive into your life and wider needs is essential. Beyond there setting goals in a number of areas is often recommended and working back from that, a plan can be produced.
Small changes to begin that we can build on with momentum is essential, only that way can we make the permanent lifestyle changes required to sustain a healthy, energised and happy life!
I truly care about your health and your happiness as we move into new year and you start to think about your goals, if this has generate some questions for you or you simply fancy a chat a little more about this stuff I LOVE hearing from you guys. Just pop me a message over on social media or fire me an email at annalouisecoaching@outlook.com and I’ll get right back to you, and if you fancy a call we’ll get that fixed too. I’ll never turn down a virtual coffee (or an in-person one if you're local is even better)!!
Peace and love for Christmas and 2025, A x
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