Is your diet working? Or are you making yourself miserable and risking your health in the long run?

Lets discover the 6 ways to know if your diet is working. 

For the purposes of this post I should point out that my definition of diet is simply “The way in which you eat every day” rather than a terrible excuse for an eating pattern that includes deprivation and sadness.

 

With that said, lets move on.

Is your diet working?

When our goal is weight loss we often measure ourselves on the scale, or perhaps with a tape measure.

We write down our start weight and then periodically (or obsessively) check our progress as we go along.

You may be losing weight, in which case – congratulations and well done. But what about other important areas of your life?

 

6 signs that your diet isn’t working

1. You feel lethargic during the day

There may be an element of tiredness initially with a change to your diet. This is understandable if you’re cutting back on sugar, caffeine and junk foods. If your body is used to a steady supply of sugar laden foods and suddenly you start eating more greens and drinking water, there is likely to be a small dip.

However, this shouldn’t be lasting too long. In fact after a few weeks, if your nutrition plan is on point, you should be starting to see an improvement in your energy levels. Both physically and mentally.

If not, your new diet is not helping you in your day to day life, time to revisit the plan?

2. Your performance suffers

Whatever activity you do whether it be heavy deadlifts, zumba or weekend hiking, how is your performance? Are you still full of energy? Are you able to keep up with the workouts?

Exercise is only a part of weight loss however it is an essential part of life. The more active we are the happier our bodies are. After all, humans are built to move!

Not only is exercise great for our body composition (how our bodies look) but it’s equally important for our brain function and memory. If you can’t complete your workouts or your daily activity is suffering due to lack of energy – it may be time to change things up.

 

3. You’re often injured

Are you always injured? Do you need to take painkillers to cope with the muscle pain after exercise? Do your legs often feel like they’re burning?

This could be a sign that you’re overtraining, or under recovering.

Your nutrition should support your training which means adequate protein to help recovery, enough carbohydrates to fuel performance and enough fats to keep your body healthy.

If you’re not eating enough, or not eating enough of the right foods, your recovery will suffer.

 

4. You can’t stay asleep

Sleep issues can show up quickly or it could be a matter of months before things start to show. Interruptions in sleep can happen to us for a variety of reasons. Stress is the biggie though and while some of us think of work stresses or general life stress, we don’t often consider the stress caused by a poor diet.

You may experience trouble getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep, waking up between 3am and 5am wide awake and full of energy. You might find yourself falling asleep at your desk at 3pm or coming home after work and feeling like you could sleep for days.

These are all signs of your hormone cortisol being out of whack. This can happen when we are chronically under nourished or pushing our bodies too hard without adequate nutrition to help us recover.

If this is happening consider this a massive wake up call – literally. Try eating more foods, for women you may find carbohydrates particularly useful here. Redress to balance and improve your sleep.

After all, sleep is often the missing piece of the puzzle when weight loss just wont happen.

 

5. Your hormones are out of balance

This can affect men as well as women but women seem to be more susceptible. For women you may notice that your periods are out of whack.

This could mean that you’re late, you’re early, it’s longer than normal, heavier than normal, lighter than normal or even completely non existent.

 

If there is a change that is unusual for you, this could be a sign that you’re under nourished with your nutrition plan. The female body responds badly to a large reduction in calories and often the first sign hormonally is that your periods change. Being on the pill can mask these symptoms so the other thing to look out for is a reduction in sex drive.

 

This is where it appears for men too. Guys, you have an easier time of it typically. Your body can handle calorie restriction much easier than women, however you’re not immune to negative consequences.

Thankfully, those possibly annoying but equally useful morning erections (or lack of) are a sign that your diet may not be the best for you. If your sex hormones are out of balance try looking to your diet to see if that’s the problem.

 

6. You obsessively think about food

 

Diets usually mean one thing: Restriction.

Lists of things you can’t have, and lists of things you can. Rigid and unforgiving.

Now, I’m not here to claim that you can eat anything you want and lose weight, this may or may not be true – what I am here to say is that you don’t need to restrict like crazy in order to lose weight.

If you find that your “good” spells of eating are followed by intakes of “bad” food, or even semi-regular binges then it’s time to take a step back and reassess your diet.

If you have negative thinking about particular foods or an uncontrolled desire to EAT ALL OF THE THINGS then it’s time to consider whether your restrictive eating may be the cause…

 

So there you have it, 6 signs that your diet isn’t working. Do any apply to you?

 

Ainzlie

 

p.s – if you’re looking for some help improving your nutrition, my coaching might be a great fit for you.