Coming to The Harcombe Diet from other diets

Coming to The Harcombe Diet from other diets.

We’re back to a really straightforward article this week – the technical and medical articles are very important for developing knowledge, but they’re best mixed up with some back-to-basics ones! This week we are looking at what might happen with you and The Harcombe Diet depending on what you were doing before you came across this way of eating. We will look at the most common diets that people will have been on before The Harcombe Diet. This article is dedicated to Jessie888 – you’ll see why!

Low calorie/calorie counting diets

My main book was called Stop Counting Calories & Start Losing Weight for good reason. It was trying to stop the vast majority of people thinking that eating less and/or doing more will lead to sustained weight loss when we know that this only happens in 2% of cases. The vast majority of dieters are still trying to eat less/do more despite knowing that this has not worked for them yet. The most enlightened ones have made the connection between low calorie diets and actually gaining weight. I have lost count of the number of times I have been told “I didn’t really have a weight problem until I went on my first (low cal) diet and then I lost weight, regained it and more. Went on another (low cal) diet, lost weight, regained it and more.” Sadly, this pattern is far too common.

The biggest problem that people face coming to The Harcombe Diet from a low cal diet is faith. After years of conditioning that calories are the only thing that matters, fat is the enemy, it doesn’t matter what you eat so long as you limit the number of calories etc, it is really, genuinely difficult for people to trust that you need to eat more – but differently – to lose weight. The longer someone has been calorie counting, the more difficult it is to change their mindset. I am always so impressed by the open mindedness of people who can read Stop Counting Calories and just buy into the principles so quickly and trust common sense. It’s a credit to everyone who does this.

There will be many people (perhaps most people) who never make this switch and they are doomed to count calories for the rest of their lives. I follow one on twitter (@rednicola) out of pure fascination. When we have our Harcombe lunches and get togethers, you also share many stories of friends and family who are completely closed minded to any new options. They firmly believe that fat is bad, carbs are good and a calorie is a calorie. The consequence will be that they are unlikely to ever lose weight and keep it off. If you do know one of the rare 2% who bucks the trend, they will be hungry and miserable and likely obsessed for life. Not the way to spend our one chance on this earth.

The observations (problems and findings) from people moving from low calorie diets to The Harcombe Diet are as follows: