People need to stop freaking out about one day where diet rules seem to no longer exist.

Every year, you’ll see people (full disclosure: it’s usually fitness or nutrition pros) recommending complete withdrawal of your favorite foods, or showing you how many minutes of exercise you need to complete in order to burn off your 3 servings of pumpkin pie.

Back. Off.

The holiday isn’t prep for a bodybuilding competition. It’s a day designed to be with family, relax, express thanks, give back to those that have less, and — if you want to — eat a few more calories than you normally do.

People will say we should not use food as a reward. That makes sense.

But, that’s not what this is. Sometimes, food is part of culture and tradition. This is not a bad thing.

Want to know what’s really wrong?

Trying to convince people that overeating too many calories for one day will make a difference. It doesn’t.

What happens when you overeat? (The Surprising Science of Fat Gain)

You’ll see plenty of stats about how the average American will gain anywhere between 5 and 10 pounds between now and the end of the year on diet plans that lose all focus.

Guess what? That weight gain does not occur in a day or two.

Here’s the truth: if you were to overeat by 1,000 to 2,000 calories in one meal, you will not gain any fat. Even if you extend that to 3,000 calories, you’re not going to add any real fat to your body.

You might feel bloated. You might be holding water. But, that will regulate. Science shows that one bad meal does not cause fat gain. It doesn’t happen in a 24-hour cycle.

That’s the same flawed mentality that drives so many diet books to pinpoint one factor that causes weight gain or sparks weight loss.

Go ahead and eat to your heart’s content on Thanksgiving or Christmas.

If you still are stressed, turn your concerns into a math problem for stress relief (and some dietary sanity).

To gain weight, you need to eat roughly eat 3,500 more calories than you typically consume. (It’s probably even more than that. And yes, the old 3,500 calories equals a pound isn’t exactly accurate, but this example still proves a powerful point.)

So, let’s say you normally eat 2,000 calories per day. If you wanted to make any real damage to the scale, you’d probably need to consume at least 6,000 calories in a day.

That is a ton of calories. Even most surveys suggest that American’s only hit about 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving. 

Many factors can cause weight gain. One bad day of eating — especially on a holiday — is not one of those causes.

Need more proof? Take the logic of one gluttonous day of eating and apply it to exercise.

Imagine if you spent one entire day exercising, burning calories, and being the human version of the Energizer Bunny (you keep going… and going… and going). And then the rest of the week (or month) you did nothing.

Would you really expect to be healthy, fit, and look incredible?

Of course not. That one day of massive calorie burn would not offset the energy imbalance created by the rest of the time.

With weight loss and gain, you have to see the bigger picture and understand that nothing occurs in a vacuum. You don’t gain muscle off of one set of curls; it’s the accumulation of volume and stress over time. And you don’t add fat from the infrequent binge, no matter how ridiculous the meal could become.

Is this a license to throw all caution to the wind, eat everything you want, and give the middle finger to a healthy diet? Of course not.

You should still eat with comfort and enjoyment in mind. If you’re doing anything to the point that you don’t feel good, then you’re probably pushing a little too aggressively.

Or, if you know from past experiences that one big indulgence leads to a month of bad habits, then it’s your job to put some restrictions on how much you eat to prevent the single day of enjoyment from turning into a longer period of time.

What To Do After You Overeat

When you have an “off” day and eat too much, you don’t need to do anything special. You simply need to return to better, normal eating habits.

Restriction and living in fear is not needed. Life is meant to be enjoyed, and sometimes that means eating foods that aren’t healthy, not punishing yourself for those behaviors, and acting like that these diet breaks are allowed (because they are).

Every day isn’t a party or a holiday. And you shouldn’t eat like it. But, when those days occur, food stress shouldn’t factor into the equation.

It might not seem healthy, but adding in a few days where you don’t have rules into the mix of many days when you have boundaries is a fair, reasonable trade.

It’s sustainable and will lead to better results. Because any diet that includes food you can enjoy with foods you know are good for you, is likely to be followed for a longer period of time, and that’s when you see the biggest transformations.

It might not sound exciting, but better health, less stress, and more good holiday. memories is something we can all celebrate.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Holiday Diet Plans: The Broken Weight Loss Model appeared first on Born Fitness.

I’m pretty worried right now. Every time I want to enjoy eating out, being social, or even the holidays, all the diet plans I try just stress me out. How do I make this work without losing my mind?

The question was fair but frustrating, and only because he was one of 100 people to ask almost the same question.

I could only wonder and regret, “How the did we get to this point?”

This “point” is a place where the most commonly held belief is that fitness and nutrition are black and white. “Healthy eating” and most “diet plans” are experienced as an overwhelming and depressing shade of stressful perfection, oftentimes created by popular diet books. Ask most people, and they believe the most effective diet and training plan consists of two primary concepts:

1. You can’t indulge and still look great
2. You must train or exercise all the time to be fit, look great, and be healthy.

The healthiest diet plans and most effective nutrition strategies focus are not about superfoods, scapegoats, or supplements. Rather, if there’s one reality that we see in research (from Atkins to The Zone), consistency, sustainability, and patience are the foundations of a good plan and prevent diet failure. And when done right, any diet and fitness plan should be built to withstand desserts, days off, and daiquiris. (Yeah, I said daiquiris. I guess “drinks” would have been a little manlier.)

This applies year-round, but it is especially important during the holiday season where many people that have worked hard throughout the year are worried about blowing it all in a couple of weeks.

Not. Going. To. Happen.

The same can be said for people that weren’t so healthy throughout the year. You can start the process of undoing your struggles by shifting your mindset towards something new; an approach that might just knock over the first domino to better health and put an end to the yearly struggle.

Hit Refresh: What Healthy Diet Plans Should Look Like

Let’s take a step back from goals like fat loss, healthy eating, and body transformation. Start by ditching whatever inflexible mindset you have about what it takes to look and feel good. That doesn’t mean you should say, “screw it” and not worry about your behaviors and actions.

But it does mean you should understand the context of what it means to be healthy, and how seemingly good behaviors can become obsessive and dangerous, and most importantly deceive you into believing you must follow certain “extreme” measures to be fit.

Before you start any plan, here’s a checklist that matters more than any weight-loss promise:

Healthy is enjoying your life.
Healthy is finding the right situations to eat the foods you love.
Healthy is not worrying if you miss a day you planned to exercise, especially if it’s because you’re doing something better with your time.

Born Fitness, was built on the principle of balance, honesty, and keeping it real so you don’t waste your time or risk your health in an attempt to become better. I don’t care if you’re a professional bodybuilder or a recreational couch surfer — we all need balance.

How will I eat during the holidays or a night out? However I please. And I recommend you try something similar.

Your goal is to separate what it takes to change your body from what sounds helpful but isn’t needed. It can be as simple as a two-step filter:

1. Add the good
2. Remove the bad, and that includes the rigidity of diets you can’t stand (you hear me, diets that say you can’t eat at night) and workouts that aren’t fun.

Do your best to train hard, passionately, and relentlessly. But if you miss days don’t sweat it.

Your job is to prioritize your health but not be perfect with it, especially during the holidays. The people you spend time with and the memories you make count more than any one workout.

That’s not an excuse or a lack of commitment to your fitness. Anyone who suggests that is only spreading the venom of their own insecurities and fears. If they choose to stay strict it can be perfectly healthy… if it’s their choice. But that doesn’t mean it has to be yours.

Instead, focus a mindset that helps you establish balance and peace of mind. Ultimately, it will probably lead to more consistency, better workouts, and improved diet compliance. That’s what happens when you have freedom and don’t need to stress the small things.

If you need a place to start, find an area that’s tough for you — such as eating carbs — and follow a more realistic approach.

Your workouts and eating habits should be a priority, but not always the top priority. Use your judgment about what’s important and enjoy.

Your body wouldn’t have it any other way.

Adam Bornstein

Adam Bornstein is a New York Times bestselling author and the author of You Can’t Screw This Up. He is the founder of Born Fitness, and the co-founder of Arnold’s Pump Club (with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Pen Name Consulting. An award-winning writer and editor, Bornstein was previously the Chief Nutrition Officer for Ladder, the Fitness and Nutrition editor for Men’s Health, Editorial Director at LIVESTRONG.com, and a columnist for SHAPE, Men’s Fitness, and Muscle & Fitness. He’s also a nutrition and fitness advisor for LeBron James, Cindy Crawford, Lindsey Vonn, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. According to The Huffington Post, Bornstein is “one of the most inspiring sources in all of health and fitness.” His work has been featured in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Fast Company, ESPN, and GQ, and he’s appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and E! News.

The post Why 99% of Diet Plans Really Fail (Hint: It’s Not Dessert) appeared first on Born Fitness.