Is this belief useful? How is it working for you?
I used to think I just needed the right diet at the beginning of my health and fitness journey.
Keto. Carnivore. Paleo. Vegan. Raw vegan. Intermittent fasting. Whole30. The Zone. Juice cleanses. Gluten-free. I tried them all. And they’d work — until they didn’t. Results all over the place. Energy all over the place. Mental and emotional state: also all over the place.
It felt like a guessing game I kept losing.
Why can’t I find something simple, something I can actually do for life, that ticks all the boxes?
Then I got more serious about the science, nutrition education, calorie balance, macro and micronutrients. Paying attention to what foods and eating patterns actually worked for me, not for some influencer. Not for a 90-day transformation story. For me. For life.
And I found it!
I’ve been eating the same way for about a decade now. No complaints.
It just keeps getting better, and I never feel like I’m dieting. I make reasonable choices. My results reflect my doing. Sometimes I eat too much and the scale goes up. I do the math for a bit, remove the extras, and it goes back to normal.
No magic. No guessing. No frustration.
What this taught me: I don’t need to know everything about nutrition. I don’t need magic for it to work. I just need a belief that makes me do more of what works.
And believing that science, imperfect as it is, outperforms any “clean” eating philosophy has served me exceptionally well.
Reliably well and reflective of what I do.
After working with 500+ clients and athletes on their nutrition, I’ve noticed something: some beliefs keep people stuck, regardless of how hard they’re trying or how “clean” they’re eating.
Here are the 3 most unhelpful beliefs about calories I see, the ones that might be keeping you stuck too:
1. “Clean” calories don’t count. Sugar-free, plant-based, all-natural, gluten-free, anti-inflammatory — if it’s “good,” it must be ok. Except your body runs on energy math, not moral categories. The body is designed to use and store as much energy as possible from ANY food source.
2. Weekends don’t really matter. You kept it clean all week. You earned it. Except five “earned” weekends - a couple of slices of pizza ~ 500 cal, a couple of pieces of cake ~ 500 cal, a couple of drinks - and a month can add easily another kilo (~7700 cal).
3. You need to eat a lot to gain weight. 10g of almonds: 60 cal. A medium cappuccino: 120 cal. A tablespoon of olive oil in your takeout: 120 cal. That’s 300 extra calories a day. Times 30 days: 8,400 calories. That’s roughly 1.1kg of potential weight gain — from 3 things that barely registered.
If you hold any of these beliefs and think you can skip the math, the weight struggle is likely to continue. Not because you’re not trying or unlucky. Because the belief doesn’t serve your goals.
These days, I’ve stopped asking “Is this true?”
I ask: Is this useful? How is believing this actually working for me?
That question has been more of a game-changer than any diet I’ve ever tried. If a belief isn’t working — you can change it. Today.
Belief → Behavior → Results
Over to you, dear reader,
Your beliefs, are they serving your goals?