They Tell You: "Just Eat Less". Does It Really Work?

Why Eating Less Doesn't Work For Most People When They Try To Lose Weight?

Welcome back! In the next set of articles, we'll discuss the ways society has tried to fight the obesity pandemic, and we'll examine all the popular diets and weight loss treatments.?

Every person on earth knows that in order to lose weight, you need to eat and drink fewer calories than you burn. Basically, to be on a calorie deficit for a certain time period.?

There are two ways to increase your calorie deficit: changing your nutrition (what and how much you eat) and exercising.?

The goal of all the weight loss diets is to create a calorie deficit. So, whether you’re doing the Low-Carb Diets, the Ducan diet, the Mediterranean diet, weight watchers, fasting, a vegan diet, or shakes and pills they have the same goal. Calorie deficit.

Now with this in mind, many dieters come to the false conclusion that in order for them to lose weight they just need to eat less. They can still eat the foods they currently eating just eat less of them, instead of three slices of pizza, they’ll eat just one slice of pizza.?

This method is called portion control, calorie restriction, or simply put, eating less.?

Unfortunately, just eating less doesn’t work for most people, and they get into the vicious cycle of yo-yo dieting!?

So, Why portion control doesn't work?

You probably know the drill: Start the diet, stick to the diet, and then weight loss stalls three months later. What happened??

Don’t blame your metabolism—that only plays a small part. What likely happened is you actually stopped sticking to eating less because your appetite went on a rampage.?

Some evidence suggests that when we dramatically restrict our food intake, our bodies have an evolutionary response of increasing the level of hormones responsible for appetite. This makes us feel hungrier and increases the chances of us eating more.

Hunger is a biological drive. Asking someone to eat smaller portions is like asking them to take fewer breaths. It’s doomed to fail!

A calorie is a Calorie?

Also, let’s review some basic assumptions. The notion that a calorie from one source is just as fattening as a calorie from any other source is a trope broadcast by the food industry as a way to absolve itself of fault.?

It’s true that all calories have the same amount of energy. One dietary calorie contains 4,184 Joules of energy. In that respect, a calorie is a calorie.

But when it comes to your body, things are not that simple. The human body is a highly complex biochemical system with elaborate processes that regulate energy balance. (Link To Study )

Different foods and macronutrients have a major effect on the hormones and brain centers that control hunger and eating behavior.

For example, different foods have different effects on satiety. This means some foods will give you a greater feeling of fullness. It’s much easier to overeat on some foods than on others.

It may be quite easy to eat 500 calories or more of ice cream, while you’d have to force-feed yourself to eat 500 calories of carrots.

This is a key example of how the food choices you make can have a huge impact on the total calories you end up consuming. When you simply eat less, you risk yourself with the guaranteed failure of fighting an impossible fight against hunger.

Your environment matters

Also, your environment plays a huge role, as we discussed in our previous articles. Over the past 50 years, our environment has become more obesogenic, favoring behavioral choices that increase the intake of energy in excess of energy requirements.

If you feel deprived and restricted (e.g. on a very low-calorie diet), you’re much more likely to lose motivation and be influenced by unhealthy foods in your environment.

Often if you feel hungry and are denying yourself certain foods, you will most likely accept a doughnut when offered one. This highlights that the idea that weight loss is as simple as ‘eat less and move more’ doesn’t account for mindset or environment influencing food choices.

Moreover, people who are focusing on just eating less, usually don’t focus on food quality and nutrients. Yes, you can be on a calorie deficit and lose some weight while eating only pizza every day! However, the ultimate goal isn’t only losing weight, but also becoming healthier, immune to diseases, and having more energy!?

In the end, eating less, in the long run, can cause you to have low energy levels, low motivation, irritability, and more negative emotions. Thus leading you to quit the diet, and get back to your old habits.?

??The bottom line:

Eating less makes sense at first glance, but it doesn’t work for the long term because you fight an impossible fight against your most primal instinct, to eat. The alternative? changing the food you eat, without limiting your quantity. When you focus on foods that are low in calories, but satiating and healthy, you achieve this priceless freedom of eating more food while still losing weight.?

Most of those foods are plant-based, and they are delicious, easy to cook, and healthy!? we’ll cover those foods in our future articles. ?

??Next week, we'll discuss one of the most popular diets people are trying- low carb/keto diets. Stay tuned!

In the "Last Diet" Newsletter,?We share science-based articles and tips that will provide you with the tools to become healthier and lose weight for life. In the first articles, we examined how the world got itself into the obesity pandemic. In the current articles, we dive deep into the consequences of this pandemic, and later on, we'll reveal all the ways people tried to fight obesity already, and find what is the most efficient way.?Subscribe to the newsletter here.

? Also, feel free to enjoy our latest?YouTube?tutorial, where we elaborate on why portion control doesn't work.