Most of my clients are interested in getting leaner. They are often surprised that conventional wisdom has been letting them down.
The earnest fat-loss efforts of many are blocked by things they don’t know are problematic: the insidious threats that might even seem like good things. The stealthier, the more dangerous.
This is why the single scariest phrase I hear as a fat-loss coach is “balanced diet.” While the concept of a balanced diet sounds sensible and is not entirely without merit, it leaves too much to the imagination, and as a result, brings with it several problems.
Firstly, the phrase itself is ambiguous: it implies a balance, but between which elements? It says nothing of the constitution of the diet, only the relative amounts of the components. As a result, this slogan somehow manages to give dietary guidance without actually clarifying what anyone is supposed to eat. Whether this is useful or not, I will let my readers judge. Compounding this difficulty is the unfortunate fact that many foods (including many whole foods) that are generally considered helpful in the pursuit of fat loss are, in my experience, anything but. Sadly, given this context, many honest people attempting to eat a “balanced diet” feel encouraged to eat seemingly helpful foods that will, in reality, only hinder their progress.
Even worse, many interpret a “balanced diet” to be a diet which has a relatively even balance of nutritious food and junk food. Many understandably interpret this phrase to mean that if you balance a certain amount of junk food with a corresponding amount of healthy food, your diet will promote your goal. I attribute this to a common belief, held by many incoming clients, that the beneficial effects of healthy foods cancel out the negative effects of junk food. While this is true to some degree, it subtly suggests that junk food can be a substantial part of a sustainable fat-loss diet. In my experience, this is rarely the case, and as far as the idea of a balanced diet contributes to this mindset, it does a disservice.
True progress in most things, including fat loss, often requires a paradigm shift. Modern society’s ideas surrounding fat loss have proved ineffective and unreliable. This has resulted in many people falling victim to a situation they were never taught how to avoid.
For further reading: ASN Staff. (June 14, 2022). “Most people think their diet is healthier than it is.” https://nutrition.org/most-people-think-their-diet-is-healthier-than-it-is/