A lot of us have been there – chances are if you’re reading this, you have been there – just starting a new diet, feeling completely confident it will work and that THIS time, you’ll be sure to maintain the weight you lost by either sticking to the diet forever or making sure you’ll exercise every single day once you’ve lost the weight. And wouldn’t you know it, you lost some weight on this new diet! Now you look great and more so, you feel great! And yet, little by little you start going right back to your old ways. Or as I like to call it, you go right back to being a red-blooded human being! Coffee with sugar every morning, beer and pizza while watching football, chomping on that yummy ginormous sandwich for lunch and enjoying a butter loaded piece of toast for breakfast or potato at dinner most nights of the week. Oh, and let us not forget the NEVER-FAILS-at-being-YUMMY that is Fast Food. And these are just the average routines of people. But besides the average routines, we also have the more than average amount of refreshing ice cream in the Summer, Holiday treats galore in the Winter, Pumpkin & Apple Caramel EVERYTHING in the Fall and the grease-tastic Fair Food in the Spring. But admit it, you don’t just like these things, you LOVE this stuff! And you absolutely should, you’ve been taught to your WHOLE life! Especially since food isn’t just something we have to eat in order to survive – foods & drinks are a very real and very emotional part of who we are to our deepest core. So, now that we’ve admitted the very obvious truth about who we are as a species, it’s time to find out just how the corporate world has been using this knowledge against us for a VERY long time.

 If you’ve done your homework, you already know that obesity wasn’t as big of a problem as it is today. Obesity started becoming an issue during the 70’s and 80’s and continues getting worse by the decade. Which begs the question, how is that even possible with all the diet & exercise options available to us now vs. back then?!

Well, let’s just say that big corporations have had some genius marketers working for them for quite some time now. Marketing geniuses who knew that the best way to get you to buy their product was by doing the following: making it look and sound amazing, forcing you to feel an emotional connection to it and then build it so it doesn’t last forever. Hence… most of today’s diet options. The sad truth about diets is that most of them don’t work, they cause known and unknown detriment to your health and some are 100% bunk! So with that said, here are 4 reasons why most diets out there today won’t and don’t work.  

Reason 1 - “Magic” Diet Pills that are anything but!

There are 3 types and 3 sub-reasons why these “magic” pills do NOT work!

Appetite suppressants: These reduce hunger and make you eat less. Not only is this unnatural, but eventually it causes your body to snap and binge eat. What’s more, when you radically decrease your caloric intake it actually slows down the burning of fat because your body gets scared and goes into survival mode, turning every little morsel it gets into fat. What’s worse, when you go off your starvation diet, your body will overcompensate and the starvation response will continue, which basically means you usually end up gaining back more weight than you have temporarily lost. 

Starch, fat or carbohydrate blockers: The advertising for these little pills really play on your emotions because they tell you it’s possible to consume all sorts of fattening food like pastries and pizzas without gaining any weight.  How?  They claim to be able to separate the fat and zip it through your body without any of it sticking.  Yeah, right.  Many people experience horrific side effects such as diarrhea, sick stomachs or blinding headaches.  However the worst part of all is that the myth these pills perpetuate actually encourages people to establish bad eating habits.

The metabolism booster:  Otherwise known as the thermogenic pill, these are the most dangerous of all because they often contain ephedrine (otherwise known as ephedra or mua hung) which is extremely dangerous, as it is a very strong stimulant which puts untold amounts of pressure on your heart, especially when you are reducing calories. It also contains massive amounts of caffeine and causes intense energy ups and downs, insomnia and mood swings.  Many people get addicted to them because they cheat by adding diuretics, which quickly knocks off the water weight and causes dehydration which can weaken muscles including, your heart.  The scales may say you have lost weight as a result, but in reality no fat has been lost: just water.

 Reason 2 - Meal Replacement Shakes that are NOT real meals!

These claim to have all the nutrients you would get in a proper, healthy meal.  However, often they are very high in sodium which is known to raise your blood pressure and zap moisture from your muscles and organs.  Common sense tells you this can’t be good for you. What’s more, many people also find they feel like they have skipped a meal so they end up eating extra for their next meal to make up for it which means more calories, more sugar and more failure.

 Reason 3 - Fad Diets that are... well, just fads!

This group includes any starvation diet and diets such as the South Beach Diet, The Atkins Diet, The Hollywood Diet, The Grapefruit Diet, the Low Carb Diet, the Cabbage Soup Diet and dozens of others you may have heard of.  Dozens of new fad diets pop up every year and they can deliver fast, although very temporary results because at some point they get so sick and tired of eating in such an unnatural way that their sense of deprivation kicks in and they start pigging out.  For instance, you may go a few days following your plan and then something just snaps inside of you and you scoff down a few burgers and a quarter tub of ice-cream. Not good, it’s just more failure to feel worse about.

 Reason 4 - Shot Doctors who are working off of new and un-tested "science!"

Some medical weight clinics offer an injection that they claim will help you keep your energy up and lose inches at the same time.  Part of the increased energy sometimes comes from vitamin B12.  They also claim that it is important to get this particular vitamin from an injection because it is not absorbed well when taken orally.  Vitamin B6 may also be included in each injection.  One of the more popular ingredients in these injections is adenosine, which is a substance that occurs naturally in your body. It is also sometimes used in the treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia.

The story goes that while treating people for these conditions researchers discovered there was a side effect of using adenosine.  The patients had a noticeable reduction in their waistlines and other areas.  They now suppose that adenosine has a cellular level effect on the body, causing fat cells to release their stored fat to be burned as energy, although locating clinical research on these claims is spotty.

After having the injection, many people notice an increase in energy that day. They normally claim it will be very subtle, not a burst of energy.  They also sometimes claim you should notice that in the late afternoon and early evening, when you start feeling lethargic, you will instead find the stamina to keep going.

They claim the adenosine should stay in your system for approximately two days and that some patients have felt their effects for as long as five days, so the marketing pitch sometimes claims that a the best results come from people who receive three to four injections per week.

Many shot doctors claim these injections will not curb your appetite and will not keep you awake. When they try to put it in simple terms, they claim that it alters your metabolism rather than speeds it up.  However, the questions begging for answers are: What are the short term side effects?  What are the long term side effects?  Do the patients lose fat or both fat and muscle, organ and skin tone?  So in essence, no one knows what this is really doing to us? And unless you feel like spending thousands of dollars and being a test-subject for a product not even doctors and scientists know much about, then do yourself a favor and just skip this one altogether.

Now that you know why most diets don’t work, also know this… The truest and saddest fact about all of this is that the diet industry does all it can to prevent you from learning the truth about the fact you’re doomed to fail. Any why wouldn’t they? The cell phone companies make it so you need a new phone every couple of years and every time a warranty expires on your car, that’s when they start breaking down. You’re being set up to fail by diet promoters so that you’ll buy the next product they put out. If they wanted you to lose weight and keep it off, they’d give you a program that works and shows you how to be successful for life.

So STOP jumping on the fad diet bandwagon and do some research! If you’re going to start a diet, make sure there’s a LOGICAL explanation that is scientifically proven regarding how and why it works. And most important, ALWAYS make sure before you hand over your money that a diet will work for YOU.

Because the only people who ever had magic pills, were the characters in the movie "The Matrix."

If you want to learn more about the science behind ITG Diet and find out if it will work for you, call ITG Diet TODAY at 866-544-8444. Have a topic you'd like ITG Diet to Blog about? Let us know by leaving us your comments and thoughts below. 

Thanks for reading our first blog and our 2nd blog will be back in 2 weeks from today - or sooner if you influx us with your suggestions and demands (which means we want you to!). 

Happy Dieting! 

-The ITG Diet Team