We are literally surrounded by information regarding dieting and weight loss. Social media, magazines, internet experts, friends, family and colleagues. Everyone is a nutrition guru these days and everyone has an opinion.

There is an expression: “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing” however when it comes to dieting the complete opposite is true (from your point of view anyway).

Too much information confuses things, it clouds your path, it throws doubt into what you are doing and this leads to procrastination and confusion.

The biggest problem when dieting is simply consistency. The main reason people fail is over a period of time they don’t remain focussed and follow a path, they jump ship, try new things, get distracted by Doris and her progress instead of focussing solely on their own.

You are on your own journey, your body is unique, what works for you does not work for anyone else, period. It may be close, but there are no two bodies identical on this planet. Your energy levels, hormonal function, bacterial levels, food likes, sweat rates, mental activity, everything is all different to the person next to you and this means that from a calorie point of view (and we are talking weight loss here) no one else needs exactly what you do.

Invariably everyone struggles with dieting, it’s the nature of the beast, and this means we are always looking for an easier route, a path to follow that actually makes it seem like it’s not a diet. Dieting is hard, we don’t want to actually go through this pain. We want our cake and eat it.

But you can’t. You’ve had your fun, you’ve eaten to abandon, you’ve enjoyed the good times and now, because you are not happy with the consequences, you need to do something about it. There is no easy, short fix, it’s hard work and a slog. It’s like giving a kid a bag of sweets. Giving it was easy, but then telling them you’ve changed your mind and now they have to give it back is far harder. 

So when you struggle, find it hard, feel demoralised etc you always hunt for an easier route, and usually this means admiring the progress of celebs, friends colleagues etc who have lost X amount doing X diet. You think to yourself well THAT is why I am struggling, cos I am doing it wrong, I will do what they are doing, or follow that advice, but this is the beginning of the end.

You need to understand only ONE thing when it comes to dieting, and every single diet on the planet that works simply does the same thing. It creates a calorie deficit, makes you eat fewer calories than your body needs. That’s it.

The type of food you eat, when you eat it, removing certain foods, exercises at certain times or doing certain types of exercise, how much you drink, all of it, ONLY serves to create a calorie deficit.

So when you realise this you can then understand that what Doris is doing, by eating a certain thing at 11am every day (and has been told this is critical for optimum metabolic mid morning uplift or some other rubbish) is actually ridiculous. If it HAS worked for Doris it isn’t because she was actually doing that thing, it’s simply because it has given her something to focus on and that has led to better adherence to her diet.

So the point of this is as follows:

Whatever you read or are told, wherever it has come from, is of complete irrelevance to you. It wont be magical or the next big thing, because science has been around since the forming of the planet and will be here until its very last day. ALL you need to do, literally, ALL you need to do to lose weight is:

EAT LESS CALORIES than your body needs

BE CONSISTENT and stick to your plan

Stop comparing yourself to other people and what they are doing, remember there are also people comparing themselves to you. There are no magical foods, or dieting strategies, or food protocols or magical exercises or miracle pills. If you are losing weight, no matter how slow, your diet is working, and focussing on everything else around you is simply a distraction and will cause you to doubt your efforts, which will lead to a loss of motivation, and then a failure of consistency.

And that only leads to a lifetime of dieting because you simply never knuckle down and get on with the job. Consistency will win the race and always deliver the results you want, always, but it’s the one thing that people struggle with, and usually, it’s because their motivation and willpower is thrown into doubt because of something they have read. So STOP reading, stop hunting out an easier way. There isn’t one. It sucks. Dieting is panse.

Accept that, and you have won half the battle. Take it one day at a time, focus ONLY on today, make TODAY good, box it off, tick the box, worry a bout tomorrow, TOMORROW.