By Craig Lindberg

“Diet.” The dreaded four-letter word. Whether it’s 5 or 500 pounds we want to lose, all of us have been frustrated from time to time with our results ~ or lack thereof. The question is…Why?

We do our due diligence…we exercise, we give up desserts and drinking (well, we give up desserts) and still we don’t look or feel the way we would like to. Magazines, self-help books, prime time television ~ it seems every media outlet has plenty of advice to dole out for all of us to achieve our goals, so why the frustration and lack of results?

The fact of the matter is that dieting, on any level, is a very personal experience. Knowing how your body will react to caloric deficiency is not something you can find in a magazine or on a daytime talk show.

There are a few popular diet misconceptions that are looked upon as gospel far too frequently. Knowing the truth about these fallacies can be your first step to achieving the results for which you have been working so hard.

Calorie in, calorie out: Perhaps the biggest misconception out there is that simply eating less and burning more calories will ultimately help you achieve your goals. The fact of the matter is your body takes time to process and ultimately store or utilize nutrients. If it were as simple as calorie in/calorie out, you could indulge in that 14 oz Porterhouse, bottle of Pinot Noir and Triple Chocolate Cheesecake, wake up the next day and simply run an extra hour on the treadmill. It doesn’t work that way. The key to effective weight loss/management is changing your metabolism and the key to changing your metabolism is consistency in your diet. Remember that the next time you try justifying that cheesecake.

BMI: Body Mass Index is a calculation used by magazines, websites, and physicians everywhere to determine one’s healthy weight based on height, weight and age. The problem is that BMI doesn’t take muscle mass into consideration. According to BMI, a 39-year-old, 6ft tall male weighing 190 pounds with a body fat percentage of 8-10 percent is overweight. Body fat percentage is the best way to determine healthy weight. Seek out an experienced personal trainer to obtain your body fat; don’t rely on quickie calculations and generalizations when it comes to your health.

Carbs = Bad: This “equation” is probably the most frustrating of the dieting misconceptions. So many people make the mistake of restricting or outright eliminating carbohydrates from their diets based on fads and misinformation. Carbohydrates are the simplest form of energy for the body. When you restrict or eliminate this important macronutrient, your body cannot function properly. This can actually lead to an increase in body fat if carbs are restricted too much, and at the very least it prevents your body from obtaining any semblance of rhythm, ultimately preventing sustainable weight loss. Now there are different types of carbohydrates and identifying which carbohydrates you should be eating ~and when~ is an important factor in losing weight and keeping it off.

The aforementioned misconceptions represent only a small sampling of why dieting, while not rocket science, is not as simple as it may appear. The best advice you can get is from a trained professional. Contact an experienced Personal Trainer or Nutritionist if you are serious about long-term changes to your diet. The more you know and understand about dieting, the better chance you will have of achieving long-term results.

Craig Lindberg, CPT, is the founder and owner of Optimal Performance Center in Shrewsbury. www.opcfitness.com