Personal Training: Spot the Fad Diet by Anders N W Lindgreen

There are endless diets being released constantly and they all claim to be the holy grail of weight loss and body transformation. I am pretty casual and don’t mind these as long as they are sound, because not one diet or particular eating style will suit all people. That’s just unrealistic. But how can the non-dietician and non-nutritionist separate the bad from the good, well, there are few things to look out for. If you don’t, you just may get less than sub-optimal results from your personal training regime.

Lifestyle

Is the diet in question a realistic way to live your life for the long-term (not that not all are die-hard health nuts)? For example, if you are required to have meal replacements for most or all of your meals – is that something that you can see yourself doing for the rest of your life? If it isn’t, don’t do it. You may lose some weight, but you also run the risk of malnourishment and once the diet is over you are likely to go back to your old habits and gain the weight back. So what did we learn? Nothing.

Malnourishment

Is the diet getting you enough vitamins, minerals and fibre? Does it even mention it? Is it a one-size-fits-all or can it be customised? One energy requirement is seldom enough to cater for all different shapes, sizes and goals. But if it gives clear instructions on how to modify it, then it’s okay in my books.

Education

Do the creators explain their reasoning behind their choices and do they educate you on how to style your eating for the long-term, once your weight loss goal is achieved? Like with the lifestyle paragraph, if you don’t know what to do once you lost your weight, other than follow the same plan for the rest of your life, chances are you’ll fall back into old habits and put stack the kilos back on again. And doing so can be extremely discouraging and damaging your self-confidence and self-image, so do everything you can to avoid it.

That I’d say are the most important things to look out for and if they all check out and there are no huge question marks that worry you, go right ahead and try it. Remember that “diet” simply means “what you eat”, and has nothing to do with restrictions or limitations. It is not an ugly word, but it’s definitely overused by us fitness nerds.

So, put any negative thoughts to the side and look forward to become a culinary master that keeps his or her waistline in check without sacrificing taste. Best of luck!