Q: Is it necessary for diets to have so many guidelines? Won’t I lose weight if I simply “eat less?” Diet Endurance Training by Yossi Muller, CNWC.

A: If someone is overweight, they clearly have been overeating (i.e. eating too many calories per day) for some time. In order to lose weight, they would have to eat less calories than they normally do in order to create a calorie deficit and shed pounds. So, in order succeed, you have to continue eating less food and calories than you did before you started the diet – for the rest of your life. The minute you start eating more, you will gain weight.

We all know that it is not possible to simply “eat less” than you did pre-diet. If you used to eat a certain amount, it is because your body needs that amount of food/energy in order to function. (It doesn’t matter why your body needs it, it may be a physical need and it may be an emotional need). If you deprive yourself enough, you will be so deprived that after a while you will be forced to eat even more than you did before the diet to provide your body with the energy it needs and craves. This is why many people who diet not only gain all of their lost weight back, but they often gain back more weight than they lost.

Take an example. If someone wants to start sleeping a few hours less per night, they won’t be able to just start sleeping less hours overnight (no pun intended). After several nights, their body will crash. It will not be able to take it anymore. Not only will they go back to their old sleeping habits, they will be so sleep deprived that they will need to sleep even more than they slept before they started “sleeping less”. Nothing will have been accomplished.

In order to successfully start sleeping less hours on a nightly basis, it is not enough to simply “sleep less”. You must get your body used to sleeping less as well. It’s like putting your body through sleep endurance training. You would have to incorporate highly sophisticated methods to change your body into one that can function on less sleep.

The same is true for weight loss. If all you do is deprive your body by consuming way too few calories a day, your body will crash. You have to get your body used to eating less – slowly and methodically.

A diet program needs to be highly specific. It is diet endurance training. It needs to be designed to change you into a person who not only eats less food but needs less food. If you follow such a diet exactly, you will achieve your goal.