Thumpy Rose Ever wondered what a healthy diet is all about? One fact is true: a healthy eating lifestyle is not dieting. Keeping to a healthy eating lifestyle is not limited to strict rules. Unfortunately, the effort to stay unrealistically thin can come with adverse downsides of dieting. This becomes apparent upon finding answers to the age-old question of “why do dieters regain weight”? Generally, the choice of a proper food lifestyle must stem from accepting the fact that an eating lifestyle is not dieting. As a matter of fact too, did you know that vegan junk is just as bad as any other junk food?
How A Food Lifestyle Is NOT Dieting
An understanding of how a diet is different from eating lifestyle brings about the appreciation of staying discipline food-wise. Let’s talk about fundamentals. Dieting has an end-goal: it could be to lose-weight, reduce sugar, or even gain-weight. Also, you diet in order to keep slim, remove sweets, or cut on carbs. A person will begin or maintain a diet for a very strict reason. Sometimes for health or for ego. For example, vegans maintain a very strict diet to protect animals and the planet. Indeed, a healthy eating lifestyle greatly helps improve your general well-being. This is because it starts with your mindset. In this regard, do you ever wonder why many vegans often quit their strict diet? It has a lot to do with the downsides of dieting discussed herein.
Related: Internet TOP question “can Africans be vegetarians or plantbased?
A diet is different from a food lifestyle because accepting a food lifestyle demands balance. In addition, appreciating that vegan junk food is just as bad as ordinary junk food helps one avoid adding unwanted extra weight. It is totally understandable most meat eating consumers keep wondering why do dieters regain weight. If you want to be thick (or thicc as the kids say), we have plenty of carb rich foods to thicken you up. Generally, you can attain your weight-loss target and overall health when you choose a food lifestyle, not the diet. Spoiler alert, my husband is shocked how I eat so many carbs and plant-protein and can’t put on weight. What’s the secret? I’m flexible with what I eat and balance my nutrition with real butter and cheese when we are far away from home and the environment demands I adapt or starve.
Plant-based Eating Lifestyle
By design, a plant-based eating lifestyle offers open-mindedness, and flexibility, which inadvertently rewards meaningful health benefits. It calls for choosing nutrient-rich foods that forms a lifestyle in order to avoid the downsides of dieting. As such, one must eat processed plant-based foods in moderation. Evident in the picture showing the plant-based breakfast patty (ignore my strange assortment of bagel toppings). I do not eat processed vegan food daily, not even weekly, because I’m aware that vegan junk food is just as bad.
Downside(s) of Dieting
Researchers state that there are a number of established downsides to dieting, including weight regain over time after stopping dieting. Unfortunately, repeated spells of dieting and rebounding often result in weight gain beyond one’s previous weight. Secondly, dieting has the negative effect of sending the body into starvation mode. This slows down one’s natural metabolism due to the need to conserve energy.
Thirdly, dieting deprives the body of such important nutrients as calcium. Experts say, this exposes the body to the risk of stress fractures, and broken bones. Finally, dieting often contributes to an eating disorder. Indeed, the constant concern about one’s body weight and shape often can develop into an obsession that makes people avoid good foods. Eating salads or drinking fruit veggies smoothies is no good, we all need rich carbs. Evidently, restricting yourself to a otherworldly diet regimen can have life threatening impact. To learn more on the downsides of dieting, please see the “why i’m no longer vegan” revelations.
Weight Management the Plant-based Way
We want to learn from others and not make the same mistake or improve upon what they could have done better. One must focus on their overall (physical, emotional & mental) health and pivot as needed, thus another reason why an eating lifestyle is not dieting. In this regard, you may consider increasing your weekly intake with as much wholesome fatty foods, butters, vegetables and fruits and carbs intake.
Personally, weight management is not in my vocabulary because homemade meals are my saving grace and fussing over my body shape seems frivolous. Others claim habitual eating lifestyle takes into account what you eat as well as other weight and health factors. These include eating wholesome regular breakfast, exercising one hour on average daily, and eating plenty of balanced ingredients, nuts, butters, vegetables and fruits. I’m not a fan of the gym so I get a good workout by sweeping our house manually a few times a week, which gets my heart rate up and it makes me feel good and fulfilled. Bottom-line, a dieter is not experimenting with food or flavors which is baffling especially when there is a world of delicious nutritious food waiting to be experienced.
Vegan Junk food is just as bad
If I didn’t have meal prep foods at home and was hungry while out and about, I would be reaching for greasy delicious plant-based fast food too. Vegan junk food is a label that has gained traction among those leading a plant-based eating lifestyle. By definition, we can term “vegan junk food” as processed plant-based foods. Those readily available on shelves of food stores, e.g. vegan cheese, vegan hot dog, vegan bacon, etc.
Normally, bacteria in dairy cheese fermented to produce body-beneficial peptides. On their part, most vegan cheese do not get fermented, rather are calorific with degraded nutrients. The biggest misconception relates to the assumption that eating vegan is eating healthy. Considering that a diet is different from a lifestyle, one can adopt a poor vegan diet while on a vegan eating lifestyle. Ideally, a healthy vegan lifestyle entails consuming wholesome plant-based foods such as fresh vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and beans. The diet should also incorporate healthy fats, fruits, grains, fermented foods and superfoods. A good example is this delish homemade stew of pinto beans and brown rice that fills your belly and stacks up the nutrients.
Today, the increasing popularity of vegan junk food in fast food chains and cafes is posing a challenge to vegans and they can’t stick to wholesome foods. The growing popularity is due to the convenient vegan junk foods as compared to healthy homemade vegan alternatives. Most vegans shy from the latter healthier option because of the great amount of time and effort it takes. This fear for the hard work in favor of quick, “pseudo healthy” picks from shelves or across food store counters during dieting also perfectly explains why do dieters regain weight. In fact, dieting itself encourages consumption of vegan junk food, thus further underscoring the downsides of dieting. In general, therefore, vegan junk food is just as bad, and should be avoided with the appreciation that a diet is different from a balanced eating lifestyle.
Why Do Dieters Regain Weight
The whole idea of a diet is to temporarily change one’s eating habits in order to achieve a certain outcome. Upon achieving desired weight loss, for example, a dieter would return to their previous eating habits. Not shaming anyone, in most cases, those previous eating habits are often unstable ones. Honestly, I could not quit sugar and why should I? Dates, cantaloupes and oranges offer so much flavor that stevia or sweet-&-low doesn’t have. I pivoted my sugar cravings from donuts, and eclairs to fruits and home-made goodies and the results kept my waistline in check.
Typically, weight loss interventions follow a certain pattern of initial rapid weight loss, weight plateau, and finally gradual regain. At first, dieting may work to help lose weight just fine. Nonetheless, a dieter often regains weight because keeping to a strict routine is not sustainable. Over an extended period of dieting, our bodies eventually rightly disagree. I imagine the body saying “you shall not deprive me and live in peace!”.
Given that a diet is different from food lifestyle, that waistline expands again after going off the strict rules of dieting. Health experts claim that the majority of dieters often regain their lost weight and even end up weighing more.
Nothing is more frustrating than to see all your hard work to lose weight go down the drain. Indeed, losing weight is such a tough work on itself. However, keeping lean is even harder. This especially is a reality if you are unyielding to change and the seasons of life. A smarter way of going about things is to be open minded. That is to say, rotate your food choices to include cooked balanced meals. Ideally, base the changes on the seasons or your location and what’s available to you.
A’las!
Fun fact, did you know that there is a raging turf war among the diverse eating lifestyles? Well, get a clear understanding why different types of food tribes are beefing. Let’s discuss further in the comments and learn from one another.
