I used to give clients extremely rigid rules to follow.
I would have them:
Weigh all of their food on a food scale
Eat a highly specific number of calories per day
Eat from a very specific, short list of foods
And those are just a a few examples.
Just about all of them lost lots of weight … but over time, some of them would gain it back.
One time I got a call from a former client almost 2 years after I’d worked with him.
He was in deep distress.
“Matt, I’ve completely spiraled out of control,” he said.
We talked for a long time that night.
He had a long history of ‘all or nothing’ eating behaviors.
He could follow a rigid diet quite well, because it felt comfortable to him.
But I realized that it was making his situation worse by reinforcing more extreme eating behavior.
I’m glad he called because ever since then, he’s been doing much better.
So you see, anyone can give you a diet plan on a piece of paper that will help you lose weight by cutting out large amounts of food.
And that will work - until it doesn’t.
It doesn’t work forever because while weight loss is about eating less, maintaining a strong & balanced weight is not.
To do that, you need to eat better, more often.
