Let me start by saying that personally I dislike the word DIET. It's never been a favorite and because I don't find temporary diets to be effective or healthy I believe that if we're going to change the way we eat, it should definitely become a long term lifestyle change.

But I also know that 'diet' is how a lot of you still familiarize yourself with those lifestyle changes.

So when starting a diet, usually the primary purpose is to lose weight. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes, you may find that you want to eat more healthily in general, or simply start eating vegan, or become more environmentally-conscious regarding what kinds of foods you buy or maybe even enhance your fitness regimen.

Of course, people often use weight as a metric. Sometimes, it might be that you only wish to lose a little, sometimes you may wish to lose a lot. Yet no matter your intentions, it can feel quite tiring to put all that effort in and to see little results. 

Of course, we cannot expect to simply lose all the weight we wish to in one week, a diet should be an overarching lifestyle change rather than a quick fix - as eating healthily, properly and reliably is its own reward, and will help you feel amazing.

But what if you feel exactly the same as you had before, or you’re not losing weight, or you aren’t interested in keeping up your diet based on how much work it is for such a little reward? As any integrative nutritionist will tell you, it’s often best to look at the big picture.

So, let’s do that, and consider three reasons why you may be experiencing these issues:

Eating healthier foods is absolutely a better option, but sometimes it’s not what food we eat, but what that food contains that makes the difference. 

For instance, it might be that you’ve cut out potato chips from your diet, but have replaced them with plenty of nuts each day. That’s a good thing, nuts often carry with them healthy fats and can be a great place to start diets like Keto. 

That said, nuts also have a great deal of calories. So choose wisely, a CICO system (calories in, calories out) often denotes that you need to expend more of your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) than you take in, and so even healthy foods like this (such as drinking plenty of fruit juice and taking in an overbearing amount of sugar) can prevent us from losing weight if we’re not careful. 

That’s why it’s best to check the macros of each foodstuff we eat, and to use apps like MyFitnessPal to track them.

Of course, it can sometimes be that we’re simply not keeping up with a diet that has us in mind. If we don’t have time to cook all day, selecting a diet that requires extensive preparation of foods can motivate you to snack or to replace meals with quick fix options. It might be that you’re taking part in a keto diet, but aren’t eating any healthy fats, and that can leave you feeling quite rough despite the fact that you’re losing weight.

Sustainability is key. It’s not a bad thing to opt for a diet you know you can take part in, rather than diving in headfirst. This can help you grow in confidence and make small, incremental steps.

It can often be quite tempting for people to start a diet and to stick to a limited selection of meals because that’s what they’re comfortable with. It’s important to switch up your diet if you can, making sure that you eat a wide variety of foods. In some diets (like veganism) it can be worthwhile to supplement vitamins and minerals, those that you may not be getting as much of in your diet - such as vitamin b12 in this case. 

This way, you can make sure you have enough variance in your diet, and that all your bases are covered.

With this advice, we hope you can more competently plan your diet and make the best of it, despite difficult initial results.