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"Diet", it's a word that has so many different meanings to it.  For some, it means months of borderline OCD behavior, eating flavorless foods, eating no food, or buying expensive "weight loss" bars and shakes.  For others, it means that they're setting themselves up for even more fat gain in the future.  Are you one of these "victims"?  First reaction would say, "Heck no!"  You might be surprised to learn, though, that what you thought was doing your body good is actually sending it down to crash and burn.  Let's go over a few different scenarios that you might have fallen into and see if we can't climb out before it's too late.

Number one, the "don't eat during the day and save up for a big dinner" diet.  Studies have shown that not eating breakfast leads to overeating throughout the day, so the idea that you will get everything you need with a big dinner never works.  The second part to this is that your body can only process and burn off so many calories at one time.  Eating 2000 calories in one meal will lead to an overflow of calories into your body, which ultimately leads to an enormous amount of insulin released to suppress your spike in blood sugar.  The result of this much insulin means fat storage.  Spacing meals throughout the day helps to control blood sugar spikes and the resulting storage of excess body fat.

Another bad "diet", the grazing diet.  Too many times, when I ask people how their eating habits are, they say, "Oh, I'm a very healthy eater.  I don't eat huge portions, but graze instead."  Again, bad idea.  Research shows that without structured times of when to eat, people who graze tend to overindulge.  Just because you eat a few potato chips here and a few there doesn't mean it's healthy.  Those little handfuls add up, and you would be surprised at how much they add up indeed. 

Bad "diet" number three, barely eating anything before a big event.  Here's the scenario, it's been 10 years since you last saw your college friends, and you want to look your best for them.  You go out and buy a killer outfit, and the only thing left to do is fit into that outfit.  You decide to bring your eating habits to a halt and take on the portion sizes of a bird.  The problem, you metabolism crashes and your ability to lose weight crashes with it.  Your body goes into starvation mode.  It stores fat and burns muscle.  Without muscle, your fat-burning potential dissolves, and not only does your "fat loss" come to a stand still, but your "fat loss" after the big event will be at a stand still as well.  "Diet" number three is the number three no-no.

Bad "diet" number four, "I can eat whatever I want because I'm eating healthy, organic food" diet. 

Big mistake. 

Here's a little secret.  Healthy food still has calories.  An interesting study that polled college students showed that when presented with a healthy food choices, they consistently underestimated the calorie counts.  Just because a food has a good amount of nutrients doesn't mean it doesn't have the calories.  Perfect example, nuts.  Healthy source of protein, but a handful can still add up to 200 calories or more.

Bad "diet" number four, the "low-fat" or "sugar-free" diet.  First off, the idea that low-fat means no fat stored on your body is ludicrous.  Fat equals tasty, so without the fat, how do you make foods tasty ... sugar, of course.  When you think about low-fat, do you think less calories?  If you do, go to the grocery store and compare a regular product to its low-fat buddy.  You'll be surprised to see there isn't much of a difference in calorie count.  What about sugar-free?  The jury is still out on whether artificial is better, some studies say yes, some say no.  Just because something is sugar-free doesn't necessarily mean it's calorie-free.  Always be conscious of the labels.

Last, but not least, the short-term diet.  Too many times, people become motivated to lose the weight, they start exercising and eating right, but as soon as they lose the weight, they start to slip back into old habits.  Weight control is a lifestyle change.  Start will small changes, work you way up to the lifestyle change, but once you get there, never look back. 

Dan Falkenberg, BA, ACE-CPT, NASM-PES

Dan Falkenberg is the cofounder of Your Live Trainers.  He can be reached at DanFalkenberg.com.

The Fat Dissolver Program; it features over 50 of the exercises I use with my own clients.  You can download them to your computer, watch them on your iPod/iPhone, or turn them into two DVDs of your own.  See my video explanation here!

Tags: nutrition, question of the week, weight loss