How many times have you heard that you can eat whatever you want in moderation?

Well, is this really good advice?

Does moderation work successfully as a strategy for weight loss?

Or does this concept merely put us back to a place where we’re relying on our willpower at a certain point to stop eating junk? Because if so, that’s not going to work.

So, here’s what I’ve got to say about moderation.

It can be the key to success but only within areas of our diet that you already have under control.

So, maybe once a week you go out and have a few drinks with friends or family to be social and unwind, or a few times per week you eat out or have a few snacks that don’t necessarily serve your health and fitness goals, but they allow you to have some stimulation or reward yourself after a tough week. For those sorts of things that you already have under control, yeah, moderation is the key.

But, since you’re already moderating them without trouble, the moderation advice doesn’t help much, now does it?

Because it falls completely short in the areas of our diet that we struggle with…

The problem with the concept of moderation is that the parts of our diet we succumb to in a negative way are the parts we have some sort of attachment to that we cannot possibly moderate.

What if you’re a chocolate addict?

…What if every single day you’re thinking about chocolate and every single night you go to your cupboard and you tell yourself, “I’m just going have one little piece. Just to take my mind off it…”

Has that ever worked? Chances are, it hasn’t. And it if has, it was probably very, very short lived and not something you’ve managed to do consistently over a sustainable period of time.

So ask yourself instead what will serve you better—having a bunch of chocolate inside the house that you have trouble controlling, or getting the chocolate out of your house altogether? Here’s your answer:

If you have a really bad habit that you have trouble saying no to, you can’t try to moderate it—you have to eliminate it!

And this is the point that I’m getting to. If you try and moderate or use your willpower to stay away from the foods you can’t say no to, you pretty much always fail. So, moderation is not the key—you can’t moderate because you have a problem with that food. Instead, you need to find a way to either:

1. physically get rid of it, or
2. strategize it out of your life.

And, if you need to know a little bit more about strategizing, watch this video next.

Conclusion

I have no doubt that the people who tell you moderation is the key are giving you this advice with the best of intentions. However, they may not understand that the people who are able to moderate their diets are already doing it, and they have their eating well within their control. So, it’s just not an issue for them and the advice is kind of moot.

But the rest of us have real issues in our diet and lifestyle that we can’t possibly moderate because we don’t have the mindset or the control over certain food weaknesses in our lives.

So, when it comes to those areas where you really need help—to those foods that have control over you rather than the other way around—don’t try to moderate. You need to eliminate! Get them out of your life so that when you get a craving for them, they’re just not available to you. Or put strategies in place to change your negative habits and behaviours over time.

Trust me on this one. If you have a problem food or foods, moderation won’t work…

What’s your biggest weakness when it comes to food? Tell us in the comments and be sure to like, share, get involved, and spread the information so it can help change lives.