I know this sounds daft because in theory, any diet that creates a calorie deficit will cause you to lose weight, and that is right, but this post is not really focussed on the mechanics of a diet. it is concerned with your ability to STICK to a diet and if you have been reading all the previous posts in this series you will have gathered by now that really that is what I am more focussed on when creating diet plans.

All diets work the same way, they lower your calories. There are NO magic foods, or magic food combinations or magic eating times or in fact anything magic. Fewer calories means fat loss. Bingo!

But what does need careful consideration is the actual diet you choose to follow from an adherence point of view. By that I mean this:

There is no point choosing a low carb/carb free diet if 90% of your current diet is made up of bread

Or choosing the 5:2 diet if you are one of those people who starts to feel faint if you don’t eat for 3 hours

Or choosing weight watchers if you are not particularly internet savvy.

SO WHAT DO YOU DO?

Choose your diet NOT based on how other people have done on it. The fact that your best mate has lost 2 stone eating low carb is worthless to you if you are a carb lover. You would manage for maybe a week or 2 but then the bread monster would get the better of you and you would give in to it.

There’s also no point in counting calories if you actually don’t know how to work out the calories in 187g of Raw Chicken Breast, or worse, if you have 167 calories left for the day, you can’t figure out how much digestive biscuit that gives you?

This is why I favour ‘allowances’ on TSP as opposed to counting calories direct. Food lists are easy to refer to and give people inspiration of what to eat.

Also, don’t be taken in by extreme results that are advertised. Every diet, mine included, will always have exceptional cases where the right person comes along at the right time, in the right frame of mind, with the right genetic potential and the right family/work/social circumstances to simply NAIL the diet. They are NOT the norm. They are the exception.

HOWEVER, you DO want to see consistent results, from at the very least someone who looks like you do now! There’s no point seeing row on row of people with 6 packs if you are starting with 5 stone to lose!

Finally, and you would expect me to say this I am sure, but where possible choose a diet that has an element of personalisation for you, your current body shape and your current lifestyle. There is no point in choosing a diet that insists on your eating 4 meals a day if you work 10 of those on a shift that does not offer you breaks. You get my drift, and this is why each plan is personally written on TSP, it’s not a generic set of figures sent out to all.

That actually finishes this series of posts and I hope you will have got some benefit from reading them. At the end of the day TSP is offering you flexibility on your food choices and meal timings and while for some that is a hindrance, for most its a benefit.

Remember to keep it simple and ALWAYS ALWAYS remember that from a fat loss perspective it is NEVER about WHAT you eat, always and only HOW MUCH.

You will lose the same amount eating 20 allowances a day worth of Jaffa Cakes as you will 20 allowances of chicken (virtually).

James