If someone asked you “what’s the best car?”
You’d likely respond with follow up questions such as for what? For who? A large family? High performance? SUV?
Or something even sillier is asking what’s the best Holiday? What the best music? What’s the best shampoo?
Yet we always are being asked, “WHAT’S THE BEST DIET?”
The answer requires just as much, if not more context as the questions above.
We have created SO many different types of “diets,” creating cultures around them where people identify harder with the way they eat than anything else.
But what happens when said diet doesn’t work anymore?
People lose their identity, resort to alleged quick fixes, and end up going back to what worked before only to find out it doesn’t.
I think it’s safe to say most people would like some form of (dare I say) muscle “tone”. As fitness professionals we sometimes take that statement at face value, thinking everyone wants veins on their abs like us, except they really just want AN ab to show through.
We all know the answer- enough time must be spent eating the things to build the muscles.
I guarantee if you ask anyone, “when was the last time you took a break from dieting and focused on eating training and getting strong?”
The answers will be “uhhhhh… years ago”.
Clients come to me for solutions. These solutions may not start the way they want. I need to be able to explain what will/can happen and why it will be beneficial in the long run.
They may need to take a break from dieting to restore normal metabolic processes to actually build muscle tissue so there is something there to “tone”.
They MAY gain a few lbs at first, but the longer they hang out there eating and training the better they’ll look, plus the easier their body will respond.
Consistency over time wins.
Deprivation, bingeing, becoming softer, hungrier, more frustrated loses.