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It might be tempting to start a new diet with the new year, but the reality is that you’re better off skipping some fad diets–especially those that are super restrictive.
For sustainable weight loss, restrictive diets rarely work and can even have the opposite effect. Although you might initially see a drop in the scale, it’s very difficult to stick to these diets, making it nearly impossible to maintain any changes.
Whole30
Whole30 is designed as a thirty day diet that focuses on eliminating processed foods from your diet, which sounds like a good plan, but the reality is less straightforward.
Under this diet, the list of restrictions is extensive. Some seem pretty standard, such as avoiding junk food and baked goods. But others are a bit more surprising; while doing Whole30, you are not supposed to eat grains, dairy, and most legumes either.
And dietitians seem to think that these restrictions, no matter how well-intentioned they might be, are unlikely to lead to longterm weight loss.
In fact, Amy Goodson, RD, explains that the program is actually built to be unsustainable.
She told Everyday Health: "This diet wasn’t designed to be sustainable — it’s meant to be a 30-day thing. But if you can’t maintain a diet for more than 30 days, why are you doing it?"
She adds that the diet could be a good "jump start" for some, but if you want to see results, there needs to be a sustainable follow-up plan for after those 30 days.
Anne Mauney, a registered dietitian in Washington, DC, also tells the outlet that diets like Whole30 can contribute to an unhealthy relationship with food.
In order to stick to the rules, you have to be hyperaware of what you are eating, which most likely involves labeling foods as "bad" or "good." This kind of mindset can have a detrimental impact on how you view nutrition.
She explains that once the thirty days are up, and you go back to your regular diet, you might have negative connotations when it comes to the foods you were previously restricting: "You may likely end up eating more of them than you need or want, because there’s that sort of ‘screw it’ mentality, where you’ve already started eating something you 'shouldn’t' have, so you might as well keep going."
"This can often turn into a sort of ongoing restrict-binge cycle over time, where you limit certain foods and then end up overdoing it on those foods later, before going right back to restricting and trying to be 'good,'" she adds.
It's not just Whole30 that you have to be wary of, but any super-restrictive diet can lead to a similar pattern: fast weight loss results that do not last and a developing unhealthy relationship with food.
Although some aspects of Whole30 could be useful in everyday life--the focus on whole, unprocessed foods is a good one--it's smart to maintain a balance when it comes to your diet, without cutting out any food group entirely (unless for other health reasons).
