It is pretty obvious that what you eat is critical to your health and your performance.

In fact there was a study done on a group of people who were put on an excellent exercise program which consisted of 3 days per week of strength training, and 2 days a week of cardiovascular training. This went on for 12 weeks. This is certainly a long period of time, and that is a large amount of exercise, and certainly more than most other people do!).

The results: A total amount of fat loss of... 0.5-1kg!!

Pathetic!

It is common for people who do everything correctly, that they lose 8-10kg of fat in 12 weeks. And even more if they started out very overweight.

The reason for the poor results in the university study?... These people were told that they could eat whatever they pleased.

Conclusion: Nutrition is critical to achieve your fitness goals.

But there is another side to the same coin.

There are diets out there that promise incredible amounts of weight loss/fat loss.

I myself have tried all kinds of diets including very low calorie liquid diets. It was a liquid only diet but the liquids were high quality protein powders. It also includes healthy fats like fish oils and flax seeds, as well as some supplements to prevent muscle loss.

These diets WORK. You will lose fat, you will look lean, and you will defeat psychological cravings for bad food (this is probably the best effect)

BUT....

Don't forget, these are DIETS. They are not NUTRITION. There are some "side effects" that make diets short term projects, rather than life long plans.

Here are some of the problems...

Metabolic slowdown - Diets that have very low calories cannot be done for long periods of time because the body responds with shock and thinks that it is in a state of starvation.

Stress hormones will go up - low calories is a condition that is stressful to your body!

Fat storage will go up - to stay alive

Non essential systems will slow down (reproductive, immune system, digestive system etc)

Digestive system will weaken (no need to work hard if we are eating all liquids/too little food)<

Muscle Loss - this is bad! Makes you look and feel weak

The body is designed to have whole, natural foods as it's nutrition. Different people do best on different ratios of fat, carbohydrates, and protein. But the food items should be the same. Meat and eggs from animals, vegetables and fruits as well as zero calorie drinks like teas and water should be the foundation of your nutrition no matter who you are.

So unless you have a specific weight class, competition or special event to "diet" for, forget about diets the majority of the time and focus on good nutrition.