Why you lose weight and regain it?

Your’e following a strict extreme fad diet! Low Carb, Low Calorie diet , Fasting, Keto, Cookie Diet, Potato Diet etc

These diets are restrictive and hard to maintain. You lose weight when you restrict your food in line with the diet and then as soon as you “go off” the diet, you regain the weight back. These diets are not lifestyles. They don’t include all foods and restrict whole food groups. Being part of a society and world that does eat all foods makes it difficult. Eventually you turn to all the food that others are eating. The key is to find balance with your eating.

You have committed to an exercise routine that is not maintainable

Committing to 5,6 or even 7 days per week of exercise is just not sustainable for most people. Find a happy medium that suits your current lifestyle. Small amounts are better than nothing and maintaining it long term is important. Always ask yourself, can I maintain this forever?

You don’t prioritise time for meal planning and food shopping

As simple and basic as it sounds, in order to eat most of your meals at home(rather than having to buy takeaway), you will need to find some time to do the food shopping and planning. Meals don’t need to be complicated or hard but committing to a set time each week can really help with this. Not being prepared can leave us hungry and looking for quick convenient meals or snacks.

You prioritise others and not yourself

Have you ever made healthy lunch for your children but then not made any for yourself and grabbed takeaway instead? Well you deserve a healthy lunch too. Too often I’m seeing clients prioritise their family or work ahead of their own health. If we don’t start prioritising ourselves, our health deteriorates and we wont be able to look after anyone. You deserve everything you want for your children. You deserve healthy food, movement, self care and happiness.

You have a busy stressful life and are overworked

Do you have a good work/life balance? Or are you working overtime, unable to make time for cooking, shopping, exercise? Having a busy stressful life can mean that we turn to convenience foods and skip out on doing any exercise or things that feed the soul (like a bath, meditation, reading or journalling). Reevaluate your stress and workload. Are you working overtime and not getting paid? Are you skipping your lunch break at work?

You have an all or nothing approach

Do you see things as I’m either all in or not doing it at all? This is commonly what I see in clinic. As I mentioned above, an example might be that you’re either “on the diet” or “off the diet” or that you’re either eating all the sweets or no sweets. Or that you’re exercising 7 days per week or none at all. This swing can cause the weight loss and weight gain outcome. There is good news, we can have a happy medium in it all. Exercising, even in small bursts such as 10-15 minutes is still helpful. Eating sweets 10% of the time and finding balance with your eating is key. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

You don’t sleep well

Do you wake up feeling tired? Do you wake up overnight or not sleep for many hours? Pre bed sleep hygiene is crucial. Make sure to be off your phone or other electronics an hour before bed and leave your phone out of the bedroom. This can really improve your sleep quality. Sleep is essential for the body to function properly. Studies have shown that not getting enough sleep is linked with increased food consumption and increased tendency to select high calorie foods.

You cut carbs, get cravings the binge eat

Cutting carbs will mostly always result in people reaching for high fat high sugar treats such as chips lollies and chocolate. This is what I see in 99% of my clients. 4pm comes and they are reaching for the cookie jar because they cut carbs at lunch. Keep those healthy carbs in as part of a healthy balanced meal and you’ll find that you’ll binge less and cravings will be reduced. Your body will be satisfied with the right balance of macronutrients on your plate.

You see food as good food and bad food

You’re on your new fad diet, but suddenly you’re faced with some different food at a party and you have no choice but to eat the bread, cake and alcohol. You see these foods as “bad foods” and so you feel as though you have stuffed up your new diet plan so you may as well stay off the new plan and binge on all the food you have restricted.

Foods are not good and bad. By seeing some foods as bad foods, its causing you to feel guilty when you eat them and result in binging.

You don’t listen to your body

You follow prescribed eating plans and rules and have lost all sense of knowing what to eat or how much your body actually needs. Without the plan, you actually don’t know how or what to eat. You haven’t learnt the skills to be able to listen to your hunger/fullness or what your body is telling you it needs.

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I hope that this has been helpful. These are the common issues I see people face when it comes to weight loss and weight gain. I help people in more detail with these issues in my coaching sessions.

If you’re needing further support, I am here for you :-) you can contact us at hello@adelaidenutrition.com.au or to book to chat about things further select the bookings and location tab on our website.

Happy Hump Day :-)

Until next time!

Mattea Palombo

Senior Dietitian (APD, AN, MPH)