Have you ever had like the hardest time trying to diet? I know I have. Here’s some awesome news – scientists found that you don’t need to stick to your diet to lose weight!
CNN put out something interesting last night. It’s this relatively small study on weight loss. But the results were so empowering. It actually made me get back on my diet (I know I’ve been promising to post about that! Sorry!)
The Study That Says You Lose More Weight If You Cheat
So there were these scientists who probably have the same problem as most people trying to lose weight – who’s honestly able to stick to a restrictive diet for months on end? Then they were like: Screw that! Maybe you don’t really need to stick to a diet 24/7! They decided to use 100 obese adults as their guinea pigs to test out their theory.
They divided them into three groups: the first one did the normal way of dieting, the second one dieted only on some days throughout the week, and the third one were told to eat as they normally would. The first group had to diet everyday, and their calorie intake was limited to 2,000 calories daily. The second group went on a stricter diet of 500 calories – but only three or four times a week. When the second group wasn’t dieting, they were allowed to pig out to up to 2,500 calories!
After a year, the normal diet group lost 5.3 percent of their weight from the start of the study. The group that did only part-time dieting lost 6 percent of their original weight! Of course, the third group probably either got fatter or stayed the same weight.
And for goodness’ sakes, the part-time dieters even cheated while cheating because the researchers caught them eating more calories than they were allowed during their diet days! The everyday diet group were mostly diligent and stuck to their calorie intake – but still lost less weight.
And Now That You Know…
Like I said at the start, this study empowered me. Don’t you feel liberated knowing you don’t need to stick to your diet every single day? I always had the impression that to lose weight, you couldn’t break your diet and had to go a whole month feeling hungry all the time! If you broke your diet, I thought all the pounds just come flooding back because your metabolism shifts or something.
I like the idea that if you’re planning on going on a 60-day diet, you can just do it slowly instead of all at once. Let’s say you go on a diet one day, then stop for a couple of days, then go back another day or two – each time you go on a diet, those days count toward your 60-day total! And if it takes you four months to get 60 days of dieting done, you’ll end up losing as much weight as if you had dieted for 60 days straight.
But there’s one caveat – if you’re going to be a part-time dieter, your diet days have to be Nazi. You have to stick to 500 calories (or cheat and do 600, I guess). This works great if you’re one of those one-hit wonders who can go a whole day without eating, but not keep up a continuous daily diet that’s less harsh. This way you can go hardcore one day, then enjoy your favorite foods the next!
I recommend starting now with one day of fasting a week! If you’ve always wanted to lose pounds but are on the fence about trying this part-time dieting out, just spend one day this week trying the 500-calorie diet out. Who knows, you might actually think it’s not a big deal. Then do it again the next week. It’ll probably burn a pound or two and save you some money on your grocery bill too!
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