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Do Diets Work? Is Dieting A Myth? | Nutritionist Explains... | Myprotein
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Jan 30, 2025
Expert accredited nutritionist explores if diets work, or if there are many factors to why people struggle to diet. Specialist nutritionist Jamie Wright talks about his personal journey with his weight loss and how it has in turn made him want to help others achieve their goals without fad diets. For many of us when we think of the word diet, it conjures in our mind a complex mass of conflicting emotions and challenging lived experiences, and it's no wonder, diets are hard. They often require us to drastically change our most ingrained dietary habits and routines. And for many, these aspirations don't work out. Follow Jamie on IG: jamiesdietguide *** Chapters: 00:00 - Introduction 01:04 - Do diets work? 02:48 - Where do diets come from? 03:20 - Diets are hard to follow? 05:16 - Fad dieting 08:18 - Goals of diets 08:55 - Are there pros/cons? 10:00 - Any more diet questions? *********************************
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0:00
diets everyone is on some sort of diet
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and they're all everyone can talk about
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at certain times of the year but do they
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actually work let's talk about that
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hi I'm Jimmy Wright an accredited
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nutritionist and I specialize in helping
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people all across the world achieve
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their goals without those silly fat
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diets for many of us when we think of
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the word diet it conjures in our mind a
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complex mass of conflicting emotions and
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challenging lived experiences and it's
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no wonder diets are hard they often
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require us to drastically change our
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most ingrained dietary habits and
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routines and for many these aspirations
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don't work out there's no greater
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evidence of this than the old fallen off
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the wagon chat that letters
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conversations throughout February of
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every year but is it fair to make the
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claim that diets don't work it has
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become an increasingly popular message
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in recent years and continues to gain
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traction as the body positivity movement
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grows while the underlying motivation of
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the message is grounded in protecting
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others from embarking on the same
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horrible Journey as those who are
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championing the claim it's not without
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its own faults so let's have a look into
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it do diets actually work if you've ever
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seen a conversation surrounding diets
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online you'll already know this is an
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incredibly emotive topic let's not beat
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around the bush there's an entire
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industry which exists solely to separate
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people from their money time and a
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healthy way of living all under the
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guise of helping you lose weight through
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clever marketing they burrow into our
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subconscious preying on our insecurities
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and convince us that the happiest
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healthiest version of ourselves is our
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smallest self and who wouldn't be sucked
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into this belief we've been bombarded by
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this message from mainstream media and
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celebrity figures for decades but those
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infectious beliefs don't just stop
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within our thoughts they cause us to be
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drawn into the dieting industry and all
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of its promises the promise of a happier
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life a healthier life to be liked to be
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desired to even find love and once they
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have you you're trapped diet after diet
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solution after solution with each new
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Venture starting from a progressively
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less stable mental and physical platform
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our grip on reality begins to loosen as
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we continue to chase a smaller wear size
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and the dieting industry never discusses
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when enough is enough nor do they give
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you a survival guide for the years that
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follow a diet they just keep throwing
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more and more extreme Solutions and
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bodies at you it's never enough you need
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to be smaller you need to be leaner you
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need to try this diet next so yes
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rebelling against this industry is
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Justified in fact it's more than
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Justified it's expected but not all
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weight loss is attributed to the dieting
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industry it's important that we learn to
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separate weight change for self and for
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health from the predators of that
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industry who convince you that weight
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change is a necessity for acceptance and
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love in this world and where apart from
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The Angst of millions of Fed Up dieters
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worldwide does the thought that diets
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don't work actually come from well it
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all stems from research done in the late
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1950s where 100 people were put on a
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variety of diets and sent on their way
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when the researchers followed up with
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them they found that around 95 percent
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of the participants had not lost weight
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regained any weight loss or it even
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gained weight the 95 figure is a popular
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one amongst the diets don't work
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Community despite fight the fact the
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original authors of the study criticized
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their own data and stated that it
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wouldn't really be appropriate to cite
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the data in the future more recently a
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range of Studies have found that even in
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those who have lost weight many of the
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participants will regain it back in fact
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dieters May regain as much as 80 percent
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of the initial weight loss over the
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course of a five-year span but why why
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is dieting so hard and why do so many
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struggle to maintain that initial weight
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loss over an extended period of time if
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we were robots weight loss would be
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simple simply consume less energy from
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food and burn more energy with exercise
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unfortunately we aren't robots and both
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our body and environment tend to make
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sustaining weight loss incredibly tough
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you see our body will react to weight
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loss behaviors in two ways it will
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decrease the amount of energy we are
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expanding while simultaneously
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increasing our drive to eat more food
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it's cruel I know I've been to the
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extreme ends of the spectrum being both
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extremely overweight and extremely
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underweight it's rubbish at both ends
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believe me your body's requirements for
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weight loss will also change as your
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body size decreases a smaller body will
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typically need less fuel to run but when
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you're used to eating a certain amount
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of food or have a routine with it then
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that transition to eating less food for
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a long period of time when you lose
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weight can be a real challenge if we
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don't adapt our approach to work around
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the adaptations being made by our body
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then we can run into a weight loss
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Plateau these weight loss platoos can be
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incredibly demotivating and often lead
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to people ditching the idea of a diet
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altogether another major hurdle to
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sustain weight loss is our environment
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we actually live in what is called an
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obesogenic environment which is
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essentially an environment which is
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perfectly positioned to make us all that
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little bit fatter from the mass
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marketing of convenience and Ultra
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processed foods to the endless working
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hours in the ever reducing free time to
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exercise it's desperately hard to
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sustain weight loss when both our body
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and environment are fighting back
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against us so imagine just how much more
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difficult all that gets when the dietary
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approach you're following is making you
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out absolutely miserable this is where
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the diet industry comes back and again
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fod diets are awful they thrive on
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immediate misleading results an extreme
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approach to restriction be it your total
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food intake your food selection options
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or even restricting yourself from entire
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nutrients will always lead to a rapid
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change in weight this rapid weight
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changes almost always changes in body
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water and stored carbohydrate trust me
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when I say this no one is losing kilos
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of body fat per week fat loss itself is
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a slow and steady process the issue with
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these rapid results in the extreme
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approach is to achieve them is that your
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body will fight back all the harder it
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leads to a downward spiral of misery
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hunger hungreness and eventually
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overeating the industry makes that out
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to be your fault your lack of willpower
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your lack of motivation it couldn't be
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that the diet itself was the problem no
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way dieting is hard enough without the
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gaslighting of the diet industry and the
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popularization of extreme unsustainable
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approaches people are set up to feel
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more than they may at first realize so
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again you are justified in thinking that
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diets don't work if you have had this
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experience it's entirely human to lose
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faith in anything that's put you through
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so much misery and let you down so
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spectacularly time and time again but
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there are potential consequences for
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proclaiming that diets absolutely don't
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work making absolute claims especially
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in nutrition almost always misses the
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Mark we know that not every attempt to
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lose weight ever has failed I'm sure you
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know at least one person in your life
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who has achieved significant weight loss
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and managed to keep it off and if you
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don't know anyone then at least now you
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know me because I have the potential
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harm of proclaiming all diets don't work
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is that it may lead to those who would
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benefit from weight loss never engaging
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in it there's a whole raft of health
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conditions that you have an increased
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risk of developing or experiencing when
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you're overweight and or obese this is a
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fact I wish it wasn't but it is so
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dissuading people who would live a
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healthier life with fat loss from
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attempting it is not good preventing
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them from engaging in potentially
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unhealthy weight loss behaviors is while
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also simultaneously educating them on
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how to manage their weight across the
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rest of their life cycle also it's
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important to mention that diets aren't
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for everyone an incessant unrealistic
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beauty standards can push a lot of
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people who shouldn't diet into the world
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of dieting it's sad it sucks but it
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happens I would say that there is a
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significant proportion of those people
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who make up the diets don't work
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community and I wholly emphasize with
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them you should feel angered by it you
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should rebel against it you should want
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to prevent others from traveling down
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that same path you should and I'm not
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going to tell you otherwise but it's
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also critically important that you
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accept and empathize with those who
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would benefit from weight loss our
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stories circumstances and goals may be
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different but that doesn't mean that we
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can support each other towards our
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healthiest happiest lives I believe that
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one of the other major issues were
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standing definitively that diets don't
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work is that we don't have a clear
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distinction for what a diet having
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worked is what are we actually aiming
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for when we diet is it the achievement
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of society's beauty standards or is it a
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slim body a lean body or is it more
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simply the prospects of a healthier
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future because well diets do work then
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we know that even five to ten percent of
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total body weight loss leads to
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significant long-term reductions in a
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risk of catastrophic health conditions
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is that not success what's the barometer
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who sets it is it different for each
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person that's the challenge with making
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an absolute statement like diets don't
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work everyone is unique and we all have
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our own concerns and contextual
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considerations to factor in that do they
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or don't they work it's a bit of both
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really they do work but unfortunately we
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have an industry that is monopolized
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failure and has superseded the actual
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clinically beneficial behavioral changes
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that can achieve and sustain weight loss
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and Healthy Living you have a right to
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your emotion
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you have a right to share your
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experiences you have a right to be angry
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to turn your back on something that no
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longer suits you you have that right but
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please understand that the only way we
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can improve the culture education and
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lifelong success around weight loss for
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other people is to use our experience
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for their betterment some people need to
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lose weight for their health some people
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have been called into believing that
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they need to lose weight to be loved one
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doesn't have to compete against the
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other they can both support each other
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don't invest your time money and effort
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into miracle cures anymore support
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others on their journey and help them
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find the healthy path to do so don't
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suffer unnecessarily use that to
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liberate or save someone else from that
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same path what are your thoughts on
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diets these are just a few of mine if
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you have any more questions or even
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advice for other viewers just like you
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let me know in the comments below and
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remember to like And subscribe to the
10:03
myproutine YouTube channel for more
10:04
great evidence-based nutrition
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information
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