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May 1, 2024Which should you choose? Is lifestyle change better than diet?
You’ve already worked out (pun not intended) that you need to make some improvements to your health. Many of us experience occurrences in life which subsequently lead us to the search for a path towards physical betterment. A very common and reasonable question, is – is lifestyle change better than diet? In this article, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of both. We’ll also point you in the direction which we suggest to our clients – the best of both worlds. Diets and lifestyle changes can feel intimidating, so let’s talk it through in a manageable, approachable way.
For the shortest answer possible, you can skip to our conclusion! In short, in answer to the question of is lifestyle change better than diet, a lifestyle change is better for the significant majority of people. Read on to discover why this is the case.
What really is a lifestyle change?
A full lifestyle change can feel like a huge commitment. But when we break it down, it doesn’t have to be as scary as it sounds. Making small, consistent changes is the best way to make an overall improvement. But how do you get started?
The best way to start is to consider your current lifestyle choices. Be honest with yourself – you can work out which behaviours are already healthy, and which aren’t. We can turn these into a written list, and consequently we can make informed choices for areas to improve. We’d suggest that the most common areas in which you may be able to make an improvement are as follows.
Home cooking vs packet foods, takeaway/fast food frequency, sleep amount and quality, stress levels and stress management, daily activity levels (walking up stairs), structured exercise levels (gym/running/etc), hydration, caffeine, and alcohol intake and frequency, and smoking.
A suggestion would be to score yourself out of 5 on each of these areas. This can help you to identify which areas you could make the most improvement on, and therefore which areas to consider prioritising. You should also consider your own personal circumstances. For example, perhaps you have a high-stress work environment which you can’t realistically change. If that were the case, increasing your sleep or exercise could help with your stress management.
It’s important to choose to improve lifestyle areas which are realistic. If you choose something unrealistic, you may set yourself up for failure, and also disappointment. Consequently, you may feel your motivation decrease.
How would you define a diet?
A diet is, by definition, a short term solution. People choose to go on a diet most often to attempt to lose weight. Other circumstances where people choose to go on a diet are for medical reasons, or competitive sports. In all of these circumstances, a diet is always chosen to move towards a short-term goal. For example, losing 5kg for any of those examples, is short-term. Once the 5kg is lost, what happens next is usually that people return to their previous habits, and often return to their previous weight too. We can therefore fairly define a diet as a short-term pursuit of weight loss.
A diet does have a positive – it’s often easier to start something with a concrete end-goal. Also, it can be easier to commit yourself to something which has a specific end point. However, you do have to consider that the statistics around diets aren’t good for the majority of people. Sometimes though, when thinking about is lifestyle change better than diet, it can be worth starting a journey with a fixed end-point. It may therefore be worth considering for you.
So is lifestyle change better than diet?
For the majority of people, a lifestyle change will be more effective long-term than a diet. Because dieting is a means to a short-term end, most people do return to their previous habits and bodyweights after a period of time. However, a lifestyle change can be harder to begin, and maintain, than a short-term diet. Lifestyle changes, as the name suggests, are designed to last forever! Whether or not a lifestyle change is better than diet will be different from person to person. The key considerations are as follows.
1 – a diet is short term, consequently most people “bounce back” to their starting weight eventually.
2 – a diet can be easier to manage mentally, because it has a fixed end point
3 – a lifestyle change is long-term, which means if you get it right, you’ll permanently improve your health
4 – a lifestyle change is a bigger commitment, therefore you should consider starting with the most important areas to improve.
What should I choose? Concluding whether a lifestyle change is better than diet
As we’ve tried to get across already, this is an individual choice. However, our opinion is that a lifestyle change is significantly superior to a diet. Because a lifestyle change is designed specifically to last forever, you’ll be able to improve your health long-term. We strongly advise long-term benefits. Whilst a lifestyle change does require more consideration than a diet, once you get it right, you’ll reap the rewards for good. We made some suggestions earlier as to how you can break down a lifestyle change, therefore making it more accessible. However, if you’d still like help with personalising and achieving a lifestyle change, you should get in touch for a complimentary consultation.
Diets can have their place, especially when weight loss is required for medical reasons in a short period of time. However, for the majority of individuals, a lifestyle change is required to experience long-term improvements. For health, vanity, or anything in-between, we can all achieve better results by thinking long-term!
