Ok let’s get serious, I know why you are here.
Wait, wait! Don’t be so fast to scurry outa here…I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Let me entice you a little bit by saying I’m not here to give you diet advice.
And I’m definitely not here wasting your time reading all this by just repackaging the same redundant information you’ve probably read all over the internet.
I’m here to tell you the simple common truths about diets that work. And no it’s not a secret weight loss diet made up of Kombucha and unicorn tears that’ll make you shed 10 pounds in a week!
Although that would have been crazy cool if it was true, right?
No! Trick question…Why are you looking for quick weight loss schemes? This article won’t deliver any of that.
What you’re going to get from this article is the “not so secret” of what it is that works well. You’re going to think it’s so crazy how everyone knows about these simple truths, but very few actually apply them.
Aside from sharing these easy-to-use principles, we will also answer common questions about weight loss, challenging yourself to lose weight, and how to lose weight effectively and naturally.
By the end of this short article, you’ll be able to create and follow a diet that works for you by simply learning and applying these golden nuggets of the information yourself.
So what are you waiting for? Start to learn these no-brainer techniques and get started right away!
Let’s jump right in…
How to Reduce Body Fat With the ‘Human Diet’
There are many weight loss programs out there today and all claim to be the best thing since sliced bread!
However, vegetarian, vegan, paleo, and whatever health or fat loss diet that’s out there, all have one thing in common, they all preach that they are the healthiest or the best for you.
Now think about this for a moment, have you ever heard of a diet that claims to be “only a little bit good”?
Never. That wouldn’t make sense, would it?
Anyone who has ever pitched a particular diet to you has almost always guaranteed life-changing and body-transforming results.
But, do you ever question these diets yourself and think “how do they know that this is the best diet for me?”
I mean with this logic, there should be only one “best” diet, right?
They also all have their own system filled with a set of restrictions, requirements, and of course the promise that you’ll feel as strong as Popeye for the rest of your life if you just stick with it.
Let’s go one step deeper here…, you’ll never see a lion ditch its — oh so yummy— gazelle carcass for a nice n’ zesty fruit salad topped with chia seeds and honey. It just doesn’t happen.
Lions have one diet which is that of a carnivore (meat-eater). It derives its energy and nutritional requirements from a diet that mainly consists of animal tissue.
Elephants have a completely different diet, which involves eating an absurd amount of grass, plants, and bushes.
Leaf-cutter ants cut pieces of leaf, take them back to their nests and eat the fungus that grows from them. (No, they don’t eat leaves because that’s not part of their diet)
A simple principle that you can extract from these examples is: Every species has a diet that is good for its survival and growth.
Most humans don’t seem to understand this. Our definition of ‘diet’ appears to have changed for the years to mean “a temporary decrease in nutrition.“
The vast majority of people are malnourished because they eat too much of the wrong food and not enough good ‘healthy’ food.
Then, we put them on a diet – a calorie restriction program – so they eat even fewer nutrients. Now they’re even more undernourished.
That’s never going to work.
— Eric Edmeades, trainer of Mindvalley’s WILDFIT Quest
If you changed your understanding of diet to mean ‘what you should consume to achieve premium health’, you’ll be well on your way to finding the ‘diet’ that works for you.
Yes, we humans have a ‘diet’ by this traditional definition, but most of the mainstream weight loss programs aren’t suggesting you stick to it.
What diet is best for me?
As we mentioned, when you look at the different animals in the animal kingdom, you’ll notice that each of the animal species has a specific diet that they tend to stick to for their optimal survival.
So, why are there many different types of diets out there when there is only one type of human?
Every organism on earth has a diet, just like a cheetah has a diet of 2.5 kilograms of fresh meat every day. Diets are specific, and humans have one.
— Eric Edmeades, trainerof Mindvalley’s WILDFIT Quest
“Are you seeing what’s happening here?”
Today, many people search for the “best weight loss programs for losing 20 pounds a week”, hoping to get quick results instead of learning how to be healthy.
In that situation, you’ll fall into a pit of noise and scattered information resulting in a lot of misinformation from companies pushing their “magic” weight loss supplements.
So the question is, do you want to:
A. Lose weight?
Or
B. Experience a ‘quick win’ and yo-yo your weight and health indefinitely?”
If you chose option “A”, then you, my friend, are on the right track. If you chose option “B”, then we’ll need to re-evaluate what being healthy means to you.
So if you want to get healthy, lose or gain weight, then let’s hit you up with some forgotten basics about what makes diets work.
Diets That Work: 4 Golden Rules
So, now you understand the basics of how dieting works, I want the present the 4 principles of diets that work.
Provided you follow these four basic principles, I’d put serious money on you being able to mold the body you always wanted
1. Diets that work are sustainable
A diet shouldn’t be a short-term shift that makes you miserable and involves insane willpower.
Even if you each your body goal through one of the miserable weight loss programs, the chances are you’ll put all the weight back on again. The classic yo-yo diet.
This occurs because yo-yo dieters typically return to the habits that made them out of shape in the first place.
Rather than fighting to cut out unhealthy food, it’s better to enjoy (and therefore sustainable) alternatives.
This eliminates the need to use willpower – and allows you to remain in your ideal body forever.
Lasting transformation is not about following a bunch of restrictive rules. It’s about changing our psychology and our relationship with food.
— Eric Edmeades, trainerof Mindvalley’s WILDFIT Quest
2. Diets that work are nutritious
Just as cheetahs need to chow down on 2.5 kilograms of fresh meat every day and elephants need to spend most of their days gorging on plants, we humans also have nutritional requirements to remain in premium health.
We need proteins, fats, calcium, iron, vitamins, omega-3s, etc.
The problem is food companies are stuffing their products with ingredients we don’t need. In fact, most of these additives are extremely bad for our health.
What’s more, when we snack on foods with no nutritional value, our body struggles to even register this as food.
Because it’s not receiving the nutrients needed to power itself properly, it signals to the brain that more food is needed.
Sugar is the biggest culprit. Not only are sugars quickly converted into body fat, but they also stimulate additional hunger. That’s why most diets that work will recommend eliminating as much sugar as possible.
Sugar triggers our appetite – and so manufacturers put it in everything.
— Eric Edmeades, trainerof Mindvalley’s WILDFIT Quest
3. Diets that work include fewer calories than you’re burning
You can dress up your new-and-improved fad diet with as many bells and whistles as you like.
At the core of everything, you’ll ultimately need to be consuming fewer calories than you’re burning to lose weight.
Of course, for your calorie-controlled diet to be sustainable, you need to be mindful about controlling hunger pangs.
For starters, make sure you’re still consuming enough food to effectively power your body. Crash diets, involving extreme calorific deficits, are the hardest to sustain.
Don’t starve your body of specific nutrients it needs either, as this will result in strong cravings. Ideally, a large portion of the calories you do consume are proteins and fibers as these are known to be particularly filling.
From there, an understanding of the psychological reasons we feel hunger will also prove helpful.
4. Diets that work take your lifestyle into account
This is why it’s impossible to name the perfect fat loss diet.
Your genetics and daily lifestyle play a key role in the weight loss program that works for you.
If you’re a professional athlete, the chances more calories than the average couch potato, including plenty of proteins to help your muscles recover from the strains of your job.
If you have a food intolerance or some other form of health problem, your diet will need to be adjusted accordingly.
That’s why it’s always recommended to speak about major changes to your diet with a professional nutritionist.
A word to remember
WildFit is not a ‘diet’ in the way that modern society uses the term.
It’s a weight loss program in which conscious eating and sustainability consume the nutrients the human body needs. Click to learn more about how WILDFIT works.
Do you have a diet or program that you’ve tried that worked wonders for you and also managed to sustain throughout the years? If so, we’d love for you to tell us + the MV community about it.