Dieting Vs. Lifestyle Changes: What’s the Difference

Living a long, happy, and healthy life is the primary motive of all beings. Thinking about living a happy and healthy life is much easier than done. In the beginning, it almost feels impossible to work on it but eventually, you will get used to it and everything becomes easy. Dieting is a big change but is temporary whereas, lifestyle change is making small changes but is permanent.

Most people struggle at dieting but the ones struggling at dieting find it is easy to adopt lifestyle changes with time. It depends on you what you want to achieve for your body and health. Let’s see the difference between Dieting and Lifestyle changes.

Dieting

The definition of diet is following rules to take balanced meals throughout the day. Balanced meals mean that you have to follow specific rules to eat that include minimum calories, no fats, sugar intake, controlling your hunger, etc. Dieting is temporary. Normally, a person on dieting has a specific goal which is weight loss, and no other motive.

When a person is dieting, he has to overcome his cravings for the food that he loved to eat before. It is quite difficult to keep the same spirit at the start of a diet because all of us know it's not easy.

Lifestyle Changes

Lifestyle changes are a term that doesn’t only refer to food intake but also refers to other activities like sleeping, exercising, and attitude. Lifestyle change means focusing on the positive and bright sides of anything. In short, lifestyle change means being optimistic. To keep yourself busy, you learn new activities that help you live a happy and healthy life. You say goodbye to stress.

What’s the Difference?

The basic difference between both dieting and lifestyle change is their period. Dieting is temporary hence followed for a short time. Whereas, lifestyle change is permanent and is followed throughout the lifetime. Dieting is a solution for a short-term goal like weight loss or preparing for an event, etc. However, dieting can be harsh for some people and may even become a do-or-die situation.

Lifestyle changes are long-term solutions. You take small steps to achieve something big like healthy and happy life. Your attitude becomes positive and you don’t feel stressed. These changes maintain a balance in life so, you will not feel demotivated and won’t quit.

Dieting or Lifestyle Change

The best choice to lose weight and maintain it or live a healthy life is a lifestyle change. It sure gives a slow result but it is far better than dieting. However, if you have short-term goals then you may go with a diet but keep in mind that short-term means that you will regain weight again much faster.

The more you will force your body to lose something, the faster it will regain that again. The slower the weight loss, the longer the results will stay with you. Aim for a lifestyle change because it focuses on your overall wellness and health.