The new year is on the horizon, which means many people are beginning to set goals in relation to their health and fitness! However, if your goal incorporates weight loss in 2023, then this infographic illustrates a few important points to bear in mind when trying to “go on a diet”.
One of the most frequently touted words in the health and fitness industry is “diet”, and with this it’s common to hear:
“Which diet are you on?” or “What’s the best diet?”
Now, we understand that this is with good reason, as the word diet is used in reference to an individual’s nutritional intake. However, a potential issue with the word “diet” is that it often suggests that someone’s eating patterns will be short-lived in attempt to achieve a specific outcome. This could infer that the diet is potentially difficult to adhere to, restrictive, unenjoyable, and socially threatening, which ultimately makes it unsustainable long-term.
With this, we advocate for a change in vocabulary, and suggest that rather than following a “diet” you instead choose to create, adopt, and follow a “dietary pattern”, which allows you to achieve weight loss simply through calorie restriction.
A dietary pattern can be defined as the quantity, variety, or combination of different foods and beverage in a diet and the frequency with which they are habitually consumed. Adopting a dietary pattern encourages long-term, sustainable, and healthful consumption of food from a variety of nutritious sources. Therefore, following a dietary pattern opposed to a diet can allow for less food/food group restriction, which in turn can contribute to developing a healthier relationship with food and improved physical health status.
A dietary pattern should include an abundance of wholesome, nutritious foods from every food group, and certain products are only limited due to allergies, intolerances, medical purposes, ethical reasons, religion, or if you simply don’t enjoy the taste/texture.
We encourage everyone to follow their own unique dietary pattern which they genuinely enjoy and promotes good health, quality of life, social interaction, athletic performance, and aligns with their values and beliefs.