Diets
Diets are defined by a set of rules applied to eating. These rules generally involve what you eat, how much, and sometimes include extra constraints such as when you eat which types of foods (chrono-dieting).
It is also characterized by the goal aims for. Most diets come with a goal that is defined in terms of how much weight loss occurs, and in how much time.
Those are poorly stated goals at best, as you have seen if you read the fake fat loss section.
Even a fat loss goal isn’t enough. Fat can come back on quickly if your diet hasn’t set the stage to prevent that. The few dieting fads that actually state goals in terms of fat loss often leave out post dieting weight gain of their equation, which means you end up back where you started sometimes just weeks after reaching your goal.
After targeting fat, and setting the stage for it to stay off, a good diet can then factor in time. The better the diet, the faster the fat comes off, but that is still less important than the previous two factors.
Since a calorie deficit is the only way to lose fat, a good diet allows you to have a large calorie deficit without threatening your health, and without struggling with hunger and fatigue, while avoiding fake fat loss.
I would say over 90% of dieters focus on weight (the first mistake), and time. Since fake fat loss actually hurts, they suffer a lot more than they should and… almost never reach their goal. When they do, it is a short-lived victory at best.
Time is important, but only worry about it once you’ve covered the most important aspects of a diet:
- targets fat.
- prevents fat from coming back on.
- keeps hunger under control.
- keeps fatigue under control (if lipolysis goes well, you burn fat for energy and do not get unnecessarily tired).