You often hear sound and quite frequently scientific approaches to calorie intake regarding what types of calories you should consume. For example things like proteins or carbohydrates come up quite often. You might even come to the decision of a certain approach over another based upon what you think is logically sound. But…can these predictions ever be wrong? You bet!
Perceived Failure
A lot of people go through life failing at things not because of anything that has to do with them but rather the current path they are following. Take jobs for example. Some people will feel like it was their fault after they have studied years for a career only to find out for some reason it didn’t work out. They may well have put everything they had into it. Sometimes a person just isn’t cut out for a certain job, even though they still might be interested in it.
The same thing can be applied to and said of diets. You might carefully research a certain approach to weight loss for literally hours and it might make total sense to you. But what happens when you fail? Either one of two things has happened. Firstly, be honest with yourself and ask if you really did give it a good try. If your answer is a definite yes to this question then the reason is probably number two – it just wasn’t the right approach to you.
Natural Laws vs. Feelings
Even though natural laws have certain cause and effect characteristics to them we must realize that we as human beings have feelings, desires, likes, dislikes, cravings and the ability to reason. As an example, take a rag doused with gasoline that has a match thrown onto it. Whether the rag likes it or not, it will burn. But say it could reason and also take action and it decided that it didn’t like to be consumed. Then either consciously or subconsciously, the rag would try to prevent this change from happening. The mind is a very powerful tool and you would be amazed at the power it has over your body if it isn’t 100% in favor of a certain approach.
Sometimes, a person may not even be able to adequately put into words why they don’t like something. On occasion, people may rely on intuition. Like when you have a bad feeling about something…you can’t explain it, but something about a particular situation, thing or person just bothers or upsets you for some reason. Only to find out later that you were right. The same can be applied to a particular nutritional approach.
While not everything you might experience while trying a diet is that vague, there are also more obvious warning signs that will tell you something, especially if it is based upon experience.
Take my case for example. For years I have been a devout follower of the moderate carbohydrate, low fat and moderate protein diet. Just to try something a little different I decided to try the high protein approach. I have read about it for years, it seemed logical to me scientifically for the most part, but it didn’t work! For the most part I felt a lot hungrier than I usually did while restricting calories. And that definitely wasn’t good for me. To compensate, I took a week off and ate moderate amounts of food to satisfy what I felt had been deprivation, and then I went back to my old approach and it works fine.
Does it still seem logical to me? Sure. Do I still believe that others have lost weight on that approach? You bet! Could I explain why I felt the way I did? Partly. Even if my feelings about the diet were just in my head it still slowed down my progress, and anything that does so for whatever reason is bad. Again, the mind can be a powerful tool to you when dieting and you want it to stay that way.
Could there be other reasons? Definitely. Maybe the protein sources I had picked were too low in fat therefore resulting in me feeling more hunger. Or maybe I wasn’t eating enough food period. But you do not want to get too technical. You could drive yourself crazy! If over a few weeks something just bugs the heck out you concerning the diet you’re on maybe you should try something else.
Also, consider what I call the ‘discomfort factor.’ Naturally, any type of program where you restrict your calories will leave you a little uncomfortable in some way or another but it’s to find the one that you can tolerate with as little resistance as possible in order to succeed. Do not bang your head against a brick wall! Don’t keep trying the same thing if it doesn’t work, switch. You might feel like your losing the battle but in reality you’re progressing. If nobody explored, we wouldn’t have found North America!
Application
I know people who have lost weight by the high protein diet and others who swear by the high carbohydrate diet. It’s your call. With all of this said, your best bet is to still choose one which makes the most sense to you based upon research, testimonials, friends, advertising etc. Then work from there. And remember, don’t get greedy (like I did :)… if something works stick to it! It won’t take long before you master your mind and your body!
