Dieting sucks! And yet, at this moment nearly half of the US population is engaged in an ongoing struggle with food. 
You can flip dieting around and stop focusing on deprivation, on less and embrace the freedom to eat more and still weigh less.
For most, a diet is a period of suffering, deprivation and a moment to moment battle between willpower and desire. Certainly not a long term success strategy for life. As I share in my book, Strength for Life, you can free yourself from this battle with the “10-steps to Dieting Freedom” in chapter 11 but today I want to go farther and expose the major flaws of the dieting mindset.
You see, dieting as a strategy for losing weight is at best half the equation. It’s focus is on limiting your total intake (TI). It’s got nothing to do with the other half of the equation: the energy you use through exercise, movement or your metabolism (Energy Depletion ED).
Trying to get thinner with nutritional limbo—eating less and less—is like trying to budget your way to wealth. Controlling your expenses does not wealth create. Want more wealth, create more value, offer more, generate more. Just the same, want to enjoy eating more freely? Take real action and use more energy in your life.
Dieting works on the simple (and relatively if not entirely accurate) concept that losing weight has simply to do with consuming fewer calories than your body utilizes each day. Thus, if you eat less than you “burn” you will utilize energy reserves which is in some part body fat.
Like I say, this is a relative truth for not only are all calories NOT created equal but when using ONLY calories in (Total Intake in this equation) to regulate fat loss, it’s a slippery slope. Try a little too hard to encourage fat loss, drop the calories just a wee-bit too low and the body will freak out and start holding more fat.
The opposite of dieting—and the more sound, sensible and complete solution for weight loss is to emphasize Energy Depletion (ED). It’s simple, rather than simply trying to eat less than you burn each day, focus on burning more calories than you eat. For when you’re (TI) Total energy Intake is less than your (ED) Energy Depletion you’ll lose weight. And as bonus you will be gaining a leave of fitness, a stronger more energized body.
This may seem rather obvious as I point it out but be honest… how often have you been told and or wanted to believe that it’s ALL about the diet, it’s about intake? It’s not. Effective, sustainable fat loss requires that you manage both with some level of clarity and mastery.
This obvious formula first arose for me when I was talking to my
neighbor, Sean, a 40-something Xterra racer who at about 6’ is a
shredded lean 165, or so, pounds. Okay, that sounds about right but
knowing Sean is a scientist of his performance through nutrition, I
knew he usually enjoys two Full Strength’s a day, but then to watch him
eat the I was amazed. That’s when I asked him to create list for me and
average daily nutrition intake it came out to around 5,500 to 6,000
calories a day!
Get it? It’s pretty clear, right? If you’re active enough you can
nearly eat anything—not that you would. But what’s important to get is
that your diet is not 100% of the game by any means. If you want real
and lasting weight loss or better yet a lean and strong body, eat well
and move your body strong.
Rather than trying to thread your eating through the eye of a needle,
open your margin of error wide by expanding your training. It’s a great
way to live and an can help you really transform your body rather
quickly. Plus, it feels great to have a real need to eat food—to not
just be eating because you want to but because you absolutely need to
replenish your body. For most this is a joy most have not known since
puberty.
Choose more not less. Be more, do more, have more, move more; rather than simply eat less, be less and enjoy less.
Oh yes, and if you're interested in the 10-Steps to Nutritional Freedom, check out Strength for Life.
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