Fad diets work — until they don't. On this Skeptical Sunday, Nick Pell reveals why a sustainable regimen always beats restriction for lasting weight loss!
Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and a guest break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. This time around, we’re joined by writer and researcher Nick Pell!
Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1139
On This Week's Skeptical Sunday, We Discuss:
- Most fad diets work primarily through inadvertent caloric restriction, not some kind of metabolic magic. When you eliminate entire food groups (per keto's commandments) or shrink eating windows (as with intermittent fasting), you're essentially performing a disappearing act on hundreds of daily calories. The weight loss isn't mysterious — it's mathematical.
- These diets often resemble nutritional extreme sports — thrilling at first, but impossible to maintain over the long term. Like trying to hold your breath underwater, eventually you come up gasping for carbs.
- The Standard American Diet (ironically abbreviated S.A.D.) sets such a dismally low nutritional baseline that almost any structured eating plan looks miraculous by comparison. When researchers celebrate a diet's success, they're often comparing it to a nutritional landscape where frozen pizza qualifies as a vegetable serving.
- Many of these diets carry surprising biological price tags — keto's potential kidney damage, carnivore's digestive rebellion (pooping "once every three days" is less a feature than a warning sign), and nutritional blind spots that could leave your body wondering what happened to all those essential micronutrients it once enjoyed.
- The most effective diet isn't the most restrictive or trendy, but simply the one you'll actually maintain. Like finding your soulmate, the best nutritional approach matches your lifestyle and preferences while gently steering you toward better choices. The best diet is the one that you'll stick with. Consider finding your personal sweet spot between nutrition science and real-life application by making modest, consistent improvements rather than dramatic overnight overhauls. Your future self will thank you for the balanced approach.
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