Why Fad Diets Work for Some People and Not for Others

I remember the first time I realized I couldn’t eat the way my friends did.  I was struggling a bit with my weight, made worse by the fact my older brother nicknamed me Thunder Thighs.  I tried really hard to eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and not stuff myself.  The things I inherently knew were beneficial to being of normal weight.  At the same time, I had a girlfriend, Gina, who literally ate cheesy, fried quesadillas every single day!  Not only that, but I also saw her with a drawer full of candy bars in her bedroom.  Of course, Gina, was as skinny as a rail!  It wasn’t fair in my 12 year old mind, and actually, I still think it’s not fair.

When two friends embark on the same fad diet, most likely the diet is going to work for one person and not the other.  If we put compliance aside, assuming both participants are extremely compliant we must wonder why it wouldn’t work the same for both people.  There are a few possible explanations:

• Body Composition. Muscle is more metabolically active than fat.  A person who is 19% body fat and has 119 lbs of lean body weight will burn more calories during the day than a person who is 25% body fat and has 80 lbs of lean body weight.  The person with the most muscle and the least body fat is going to lose more weight.
• Genetics. Our family history determines the distribution of body fat.  Many studies have found body fat contained in certain areas is harder to lose, such as abdominal fat or subcutaneous fat. Studies are also suggesting that genetics may play a role in our bodies retention of fat, despite outside influences like diet and exercise.
• Thyroid and metabolism.  Our thyroid is the key that regulates metabolism.  We cannot overlook the fact that some people thyroids are humming along at the speed of a hummingbird, while others are working like snails. Even if there is nothing wrong with someone’s thyroid, as in your TSH (Thyroid stimulating hormone) falls within normal ranges.. your normal can be at the top of the range, and your friends  normal at the bottom.  It makes a difference if you are trying to consider every calorie burned.
• Hormones. In weight loss there are hormones that work for you, and hormones that work against you.  Hormones will give you cravings, they’ll react to your stress, they’ll help you keep fat in womanly places, and they’ll help you to burn fat.  We all have hormones that function at different capacities, as well as move up and down depending on the time of month.  This effects your ability to drop weight, as well as it cause some people to retain the weight they are trying to drop.
• Breathing. Did you know that breathing affects how well we can lose weight!  We all breath at different rates, at different altitudes, and at different temperatures.  This makes a difference in how well we are able to metabolize fat, as oxygen is a vital piece in the metabolic cycle.  Oxygen literally burns calories, and you may live at a high altitude, where oxygen is limited.
• Body size. A person, who starts bigger, is going to lose weight on the same diet.  If my husband and I were both to eat 1200 calories per day, he would lose weight, and I would maintain my weight.  In weight loss competitions people know this. Therefore they usually decide to judge on percentage of weight lost, like the biggest loser, rather than total weight lost, because of size.  Just remember this when your friend, who started out heavier is losing more pounds.

CONCLUSION

While it’s easy for scientists, and even healthy living writers like me to simplify weight loss by saying, “less calories in, more calories burned, equals more weight loss”, it really isn’t that simple.  There are so many factors that are associated with weight loss.  There are also so many flaws in our ability to calculate calories burned by each person accurately.  Fortunately, it’s not impossible to lose weight, but unfortunately you may have to work twice as hard as your friends to lose it.

1of 10 - Medifast

#1 Customer Rated Diet
Get 2 Weeks of Food Free!
Money Back Guarantee

Medifast has been around for over 27 years. It started off by offering meal replacement programs available only through doctors. Today the Medifast diet is now widely available and includes 70 meal-replacement options, including the popular shakes. When you join Medifast an array of support services and educational material — including exercise guides, nutrition information, online communities, personal trainers, and registered dietitians — are made available to you online, in person, or over the telephone to help you in reaching your weight loss goals.
<< Read More About Medifast >>

2 of 10 - Jillian Michaels Online

Extremely Popular Plan
Helpful Weight Loss Tools
Customized Diet Plan

Jillian has combined years of training experience with the weight-loss secrets from her success on NBC's hit series The Biggest Loser to create her new online program. This is your real solution to weight loss. Change your life by following Jillian's triple-threat approach to success: self, science, and sweat. Jillian Michaels is best known as the fitness trainer and life coach on NBC's hit series, The Biggest Loser. Jillian's newest book, Master Your Metabolism, shows you how to make your body's hormones work for you — not against you — so you can lose weight and get healthy once and for all!
<< Read More About Jillian Michaels>>

3of 10 - SouthBeach Online

Strong Support Community
Food Tastes Great
Doctor Recommended

The South Beach Diet is truly a food lover's diet. It's about living well and loving what you eat. But it's also practical, flexible, easy, and effective. The South Beach Diet is more than a diet — it's a way of life. Unlike other plans, which emphasize calories, carbs, fats, or portion sizes, the South Beach Diet emphasizes delicious foods. It explains how to make the best food choices so you can improve your health and lose weight. Because this is the healthiest way to eat, and because the diet includes a tremendous variety of delicious whole foods, people can happily enjoy eating this way for life. In fact, people who have adopted the South Beach Diet lifestyle often refer to it as the food lover's diet because the eating plan is truly flavorful and satisfying.
<< Read More About South Beach Online>>