Every time a celebrity name leaves a diet, there is an instant buzz. That is what happened when Chris Pratt, an actor best known for his roles in the Jurassic Park and Lego Movie franchises, recently mentioned on Instagram that he is testing Daniel Fast.
If you started a diet full of hope and enthusiasm but now you are picking up the pieces, you may feel that you failed. So let me be clear: you didn’t fail. The diet failed you. Most popular diets are simply too much: too restrictive, too low in calories, too cheerful, too expensive, too inconvenient.
Losing weight is much easier than not regaining it. The truth is that diets can work in the short term. Whether it is a low crab level, counting points or calorie count, many plans (when followed) will in fact result in the loss of pounds. But most diets eventually fail because you eventually feel hungry and deprived, discard the plan and recover the lost weight (and, in many cases, even more).
Not a day goes by without you listening, reading or answering a question about the keto diet. And it is not surprising: there are a lot of exaggerations about the dramatic results. The keto diet (abbreviation for ketogenic diet) is a high-fat and low-carb diet plan. By depriving your body of carbohydrates, your preferred source of energy, forces you to use fat as fuel.
When I got my degree, emerging research on obesity was a hot topic. I wrote many magazine articles about weight loss, and my master’s thesis was a survey of people who had undergone gastric bypass surgery. One of my first jobs as a dietitian was to work at a local recreation center, advising and leading small groups for people interested in losing weight.
