The #1 Mistake of Inexperienced Dieters

I did it for years

My calories are getting quite low in preparation to voluntarily be judged on stage with no shirt on (35 days out at the time of writing).

One of the meals that I’ve been able to fit into my macros is a High Protein Cheesecake bowl.

I have a couple of recipes for this, but my favorite is:

• 75g Light Cream Cheese

• 200g 0% Plain Greek Yogurt

• 5-10 0 cal sweetener (Stevia)

• 25 g Whey/Casein protein

• 20g Powdered Peanut Butter

• 20g Stevia-Sweetened chocolate chips

It’s a chocolate peanut butter cheesecake bowl.

It’s delicious.

Not bad for a diet, right?

As I was eating this the other day, it occurred to me that it was not the “best” thing I could be eating.

If I cut the cream cheese, increased the Greek yogurt and added some fruit, I’d get more fibre, more protein, and fewer calories from fat.

This would arguably be a better choice.

But I love the protein cheesecake bowl.

I look forward to it. I get excited to eat it.

It makes it easy to stick to the plan.

And sticking to the plan is the essence of a successful dieting phase.

It’s all about adherence.

This is the common dieting mistake that I have made for years:

People overestimate the 5% difference in quality and underestimate the effects of the screw-it days.

Let’s break that down:

The 5%

Take my protein cheesecake bowl example.

Let’s say that it’s ~5% less “healthy” than just eating a Greek Yogurt + fruit bowl.

This is a small tradeoff that helps me stay consistent in the long term.

But inexperienced dieters will blow these tradeoffs out of proportion.

The inexperienced dieter believes that everything has to be perfect, so they go for the “best” option in all scenarios.

They avoid the small bowl of frozen yogurt, the 2 pieces of dark chocolate, or the 2 Oreo cookies.

They avoid making these small tradeoffs for health (that have a big payoff for happiness) because they believe they’re more harmful than they are.

They believe they have to be optimized.

In reality, these minor tradeoffs are only ~5% less healthy than being perfect, and they’re not detrimental to the success of a diet.

But the inexperienced dieter doesn’t believe it.

And then the diet fatigue accumulates…

The inexperienced dieter will last days, maybe even weeks, sticking to perfection, but enough diet fatigue usually results in the same outcome:

The “screw-it” moment.

The moment where after a particularly stressful day, or a bad night of sleep, the dieter says “screw it” and eats the whole thing.

The whole bag of chips.

The whole pint of ice cream.

The whole pizza.

Whatever it might be.

It’s these moments that are cancer to a diet, not the 5%.

The Screw it Moment

The inexperienced dieter overestimates how bad the 5% tradeoffs are, and they underestimate the severity of the screw it.

The amount of calories you can eat when you have a true “screw-it” moment is alarming.

When you get into the territory of an entire box of cereal, a whole bag of chips, or an entire grocery store carrot cake, we’re talking about potentially thousands of calories.

We’re talking about undoing your calorie deficit for the last week+.

Not to mention the element of guilt and shame (that often results in these moments lasting more than one day).

Enemy #1 of dieting is this screw-it moment.

Making small tradeoffs (5%) for some fun foods is not the problem.

The Takeaway

Anything that can help you avoid binging and stick to the plan is arguably a healthy food.

These little negotiations and tradeoffs you can make that maybe are 5% less healthy than an alternative but that you enjoy 50% more?

These are good tradeoffs, and they are not blocking your fat loss goals.

What is blocking your fat loss goals is trying to be perfect, letting the diet fatigue accumulate and accumulate to the point that you have a screw it moment and overeat by a landslide in an unplanned way.

So don’t stress about being perfect, and enjoy your 5% deviations.

Have a few chips here and there. Some popcorn. A piece or two of dark chocolate.

A high-protein cheesecake bowl.

Don’t sweat the 5%.

But be wary of the screw-it moment.