Weight Loss Paradise

1,200 Calorie Diets: The Weight Loss Paradise?

1,200 calorie diets are the one size fits all it seems like when we’re talking weight loss. Even though we have learned for several years now that it doesn’t actually lead to weight loss long-term. Yet, somehow the diet culture is still able to sell millions-- sorry I mean billions-- of dollars worth of fad diets, supplements, tools, videos, etc. It’s so peculiar that the number of dollars spent on diets continues to rise into the billions, yet the obesity rate is not going down. It’s going up (you probably knew this).

And anytime I think of low calorie diets and weight loss, I think of The Biggest Loser. Do you remember that show? It was inspiring and yet, entirely defeating all at the same time. I was so inspired by the contestants and their will to improve their health, but also shamed myself for eating the normal 2,000 calories diet or even worse… not even counting calories at all *gAsP*

Was it wrong to feel satisfied and full after meals? Was I supposed to always be in misery? Let’s be clear, I don’t blame that show for any of my shame or food issues, I am simply sharing the feelings I remember while watching this show. 

I also think of this show anytime I try to convince someone that low calorie diets don’t work. Not only are there numerous studies that show most people that go on a low calorie diet end up gaining the weight back (and sometimes more) within 6 months to a year, but also… where did the biggest loser contestants go?! Why didn’t they ever have a reunion?

Well… a lot of the contestants gained the weight back. And to be very blunt, you would too if you had to do what they did.  For most of the days that they were at camp, they worked out twice and ate less than 1,000 calories. So when you take away Jillian Michaels training you, the restriction in the camps, the pressure with the cameras and then put back into real life… you are going to find some struggles.

It’s exactly like Bachelor in Paradise. Everything is great in paradise when you have an open bar, sandy beaches, and literally no other stresses other than if you will get the final rose. Then you’re put back into real life expecting to feel and act the same. Transitioning into marriage from regular dating life is hard enough. I can’t imagine going from dating ‘in Paradise’ straight to marriage in regular life. 

And I can’t imagine going on a crazy restricted diet in “weight loss paradise” and then going back to the real world expecting to be able to do the same. 

I’m not sure how I went from 1,200 calorie diets to Bachelor in Paradise, but here we are and I hope that it at least starts to make you reconsider the restrictive lifestyle and allow yourself to nourish your body when it needs it. You deserve to show up in life and you need the calories do it :)