When you’ve decided it’s time to lose weight you’re likely to wonder what the best way to lose weight is. There are many weight loss methods, so you’ll have to choose which way to go. Let’s start by looking at 4 surprisingly poor choices for losing weight.
What makes a weight loss method a bad choice?
When evaluating a method of weight loss there are several red flags to look for:
Severely restricts a macronutrient
Severely restricts calories
Imposes strict rules to follow
Promises very quick results
Doesn’t promote healthy eating
The methods we look at below have these in common. Let’s take a deeper dive into why these are the worst ways to lose weight.
Keto or Atkins – THE WORST!
Keto and Atkins are diets which severely restrict carbohydrates. They are also both high fat diets. While Atkins allows you to increase carbohydrates as you progress, the keto diet has a goal of keeping carbohydrates so low you go into a state of ketosis which makes it especially problematic.
Both can cause metabolic syndrome or slowed metabolism which stops fat loss. Keto is a body wrecker.
These diets can shut down your thyroid leading to hypothyroidism. Not eating enough carbs lowers T3 (the active thyroid hormone) levels and the excess fat in the diets lowers T4 levels. The conversion of T3 to T4 is also lowered by the low carbohydrate levels. The incidence of hypothyroidism in the United States has more than doubled in the last 2 decades from approximately 5% to over 11% in 2019. In Australia there has been a 25% increase in the prescription of thyroid medication between 2014 and 2023. In Australia hypothyroidism affects about 3% of the population. Many more people in both countries may be undiagnosed.
Keto and Atkins increase insulin resistance. Eating too much saturated fat contributes to insulin resistance.
Intermittent fasting – 2nd WORST
The second worst way to try to lose weight is intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is a method of weight loss that has set eating and fasting times. Fasting times range 12 to over 24 hours. Most don’t allow for more than 2 meals per day.
Proponents of intermittent fasting are often fitness gurus, but one thing to consider is the only professional athletes that fast are Sumo wrestlers as they know it is the fastest way to gain body fat. They only eat 1 meal a day.
I discuss this weight loss method in more detail here but let’s consider some of reasons this method is so bad for you.
Fasting causes stress and cortisol levels to spike. When these are chronically elevated due to work/life and then you add fasting, it causes too much cortisol and boosts fat storage.
Blood sugar levels become unstable – when fasting, any meal will cause an insulin spike which is an easy way to put on body fat. And your blood sugar can become too low while fasting leading to headaches, dizziness or nausea.
When you eat 2 times per day you don’t get all your nutrients and go over your nutrition threshold very quickly ie you can only absorb so much before the rest is stored as fat or in the case of nutrients, excreted. If your meal is too big you’ll only absorb what it can at the time.
Intermittent fasting can cause your exercise to suffer. If your blood sugar is low your workouts won’t be as effective and you may want to skip them more often.
Low Calorie Diets
Many popular diet plans involve cutting calories, often by an extreme amount. The idea is that in order to lose weight you need to eat fewer calories than you burn through exercise and daily activities. Unfortunately it’s not so simple.
The type of foods you eat, the timing of your meals and food balance plays a bigger role than calories when trying to lose weight but these are often overlooked.
Here are some of the reasons that cutting calories won’t work for long term sustainable weight loss:
Cutting calories causes repressed metabolic syndrome and slows your metabolism
These diets cause muscle loss which deactivates the fat burning mechanism
These diets are often too low in protein and the protein they do contain is used for energy rather than maintaining muscle, bone and hormone levels.
When you return to previous eating patterns or take a vacation, you’ll gain the weight back. And because you’ve lost muscle your body fat levels will be higher and metabolism will be slower.
You’ll feel awful - low energy, bad sleep, starving and cravings!
You’ll likely be deficient in multiple nutrients.
Low calorie diets contribute to stress levels and higher cortisol which slows your fat burning mechanism.
They are not sustainable.
High intensity exercise and/or high frequency of exercise
People often try to use the other side of the calories in vs calories out equation to lose weight. But this can backfire. You shouldn’t need to do hours of workouts to lose weight. Here are some of the reasons.
This type of exercise causes stress on the body which can spike cortisol and stop fat loss, burning muscle for fuel instead of fat
This can slow your metabolism as your body can break down muscle to fuel this intense exercise.
Your body adapts to the this level of exercise so you need to work harder or longer to continue to see results.
You will tend to eat much more than the calories expended with the exercise as hunger becomes overwhelming. Some people will eat up to 50% more with intense exercise, while they are only burning a small fraction of those calories.
What should you do instead
When you use a fad or restrictive diet, it causes your metabolism to slow down and you stop burning fat. Instead we need to focus on resetting your metabolism to get your body back into a fat burning state so you can lose weight permanently. Here are some things to consider:
Focusing on balancing blood sugar, and hormones is key to reducing cravings and boosting your metabolism
Eat plenty of nutrient rich foods so that your body has the energy it needs
Make sure you are getting enough protein. Protein helps to promote weight loss in several different ways (link here)
Reduce your stress levels and improve your sleep habits
Include exercise that promotes stress reduction, increases strength and muscle and promotes overall well being.
Get professional help. I help people who have tried everything to lose weight by providing customized solutions with the correct balance of food, timing of food and types of food
How I can help
If you finally want to get a customized lifestyle eating plan that will work with your body, not against it, so you can feel amazing and lose body fat at the same time plus support your body and fix your metabolism, book a free Nutrition Assessment. You’re only days away from changing your life forever.
Warm wishes,
Vicki Witt | Clinical Nutritionist | Holistic Coach | Reiki Master | Certified LEAP allergy therapist Over 25 years of successfully helping you achieve optimal health and weight loss 🍏| www.vickiwittweightloss.com
About Vicki:
Vicki Witt is a Clinical Nutritionist, Holistic Health Coach, and Reiki Master. She has been practicing over 25 years and specializes in holistically customizing diet and lifestyle plans to each individual for weight loss and hormonal control. Her clientele often report they feel the best they have ever felt and wish they had started sooner. One of the USA and Australia's top Nutritionists, she has won multiple awards for her services in the industry.
Certified and Registered Nutritionist