Healthy eating is something we all know we’re supposed to do, but sticking to it can feel like a monumental challenge. Why is it so hard to stick to a diet? Why is it that so many people start with the best intentions, only to find themselves slipping back into old patterns within weeks or months?
I have been coaching for years and I’ve observed firsthand just how hard it is for some people to stick to a diet, and I have a few tricks up my sleeve to help you overcome this. But before we get into those tricks, it is helpful to understand why it is so hard to stick to a diet.
Why Is It So Hard to Stick to a Diet?
Healthy eating and dieting often go hand in hand, but the specific challenges of “dieting” deserve their own focus. Diets are typically short-term, restrictive, and built around achieving rapid results, making them difficult to sustain. When most people think of a “diet” they aren’t thinking of “what they eat and drink habitually” (which is the rough definition of a diet). Instead, most people think of a diet as what they do to actively lose weight. So, the way most people think of a diet is inherently a calorie-deficient diet.
We will keep this in mind as we go through the reasons why people find it so hard to stick to a diet.
The Restriction Mindset
One of the primary reasons diets fail is that they’re built around the idea of restriction, cutting out entire food groups, slashing calorie intake, or imposing rigid rules. This creates a sense of deprivation, both physically and mentally. When you’re constantly told “you can’t have this,” your cravings for the forbidden foods intensify, making it harder to stick to the plan.
Restriction isn’t inherently bad, and it is often required for certain results. However, the way most people go about things could best be described as excessive and aggressive restriction. As a result, the reason a lot of people find it hard to stick to their diet is that they have simply set things up to be on hard mode.
The simple fix here is to just not be as aggressive with the restriction. Focus on how you can nourish your body rather than how you can punish yourself by eating as little as possible. If you need help understanding how to set up the diet correctly, we have a lot of information on this on our nutrition home page.
Biological Factors: Your Body Fights Back
When you go on a restrictive diet, your body often interprets the calorie deficit as a threat to survival. This activates biological mechanisms, such as:
- Increased hunger hormones (like ghrelin).
- Decreased satiety hormones (like leptin).
- Slower metabolism to conserve energy.
These physiological changes make it harder to resist cravings and maintain weight loss.
Again, an easy enough fix to this is to avoid extreme calorie deficits. Instead, focus on a gradual, sustainable approach to weight loss, prioritising nutrient-dense foods that keep you fuller for longer, like proteins, healthy fats, and fibre-rich carbs. Don’t diet for as long, and intersperse periods of calorie deficits with periods at maintenance calories.
The Psychology of Willpower
Willpower is often described as being a limited resource. However, this likely isn’t true, although it does feel this way. When you rely solely on self-control to avoid tempting foods, you’re more likely to give in, especially when you’re tired, stressed, or hungry. Dieting often demands a high level of willpower, which can feel like it quickly depletes. You just don’t have the systems in place, and without a clear idea of what your new diet requires, you just default to your previous habits.
The modern world inundates us with nutritional advice, much of it contradictory. Should you go keto? Try intermittent fasting? Or just eat more vegetables? This deluge of information can paralyse decision-making. Faced with too many choices, people often default to the familiar, unhealthy, convenient options.
This overwhelm also leads to the feeling of decision fatigue. After a long day of making choices, opting for takeout or processed snacks feels easier than preparing a nutritious meal. Simplifying decision-making around food can help reduce this mental load.
Solution: Create an environment that reduces reliance on willpower:
- Remove highly tempting foods from your home (this doesn’t need to be forever, just until you break out of the old habits).
- Prep healthy meals in advance.
- Use smaller plates and portion control to make healthy eating automatic.
- Practice. You will naturally require less willpower once you have ingrained the new habits.
Diet Culture and Unrealistic Standards
Diet culture promotes quick fixes, emphasising drastic transformations in a short time. Social media often compounds this by showcasing “before and after” photos, creating unrealistic expectations. When people don’t see rapid progress, they feel discouraged and abandon their efforts.
We live in an age of instant results, and the desire for rapid weight loss or dramatic health improvements often sets people up for disappointment. Unrealistic expectations ignore the time and effort it takes to unlearn years, or even decades, of ingrained habits.
Imagine planting a tree and expecting it to bear fruit in a week. Healthy eating is similar. The process requires time, care, and consistency, but the rewards (long-term health and vitality) are worth the patience, even if it doesn’t feel like it at the time.
Solution: Set realistic, long-term goals. Understand that sustainable weight loss averages 0.5-1 kilograms (~1-2 pounds) per week. Focus on non-scale victories, like improved energy, better sleep, or enhanced mood. The more you can actually enjoy the process, rather than focusing on the actual results, the easier things tend to be.
Lack of Personalisation
Most “diets” are one-size-fits-all, and fail to account for individual needs, preferences, and lifestyles. A diet that works for someone else may be completely impractical or unsatisfying for you.
The easy fix here is that you just need to personalise your approach:
- Choose foods and meal strategies that align with your tastes and cultural background.
- Consider working with a nutrition coach to create a plan tailored to your needs.
There is lots of free information in our nutrition hub to help you tailor things to your needs.
Social Pressures and Environmental Triggers
Social gatherings, office environments, and even the layout of your kitchen can significantly influence your eating habits. Peer pressure to indulge, combined with the availability of unhealthy options, makes sticking to a healthy diet challenging.
However, external factors can be managed. Recognising these triggers is the first step toward creating an environment that supports your goals.
Diets often feel isolating, especially in social settings where unhealthy food options are abundant. Peer pressure or lack of support can lead to feelings of frustration or temptation.
Communicate your goals to friends and family, and seek out supportive environments to help deal with this. Consider joining a community or group with similar health goals to stay motivated. Stop following thousands of health and fitness influencers on social media.
The Diet Mentality vs. Lifestyle Change
Perhaps the biggest barrier to sticking to a diet is the belief that it’s temporary. Diets are often framed as a short-term effort to “fix” something, leading to a yo-yo effect where people return to old habits after reaching their goal.
Doing too much, all at once.
Solution: Reframe your thinking. Instead of viewing healthy eating as a “diet”, approach it as a lifelong journey of nourishing your body and mind. Focus on sustainable habits that enhance your quality of life. This switch in thinking takes time, but it can be done and it really does help.
All-or-Nothing Thinking
This mindset is one of the most pervasive challenges to healthy eating. Many individuals adopt an all-or-nothing approach, believing they must adhere to a rigid standard of “perfect eating.” One indulgence (say, a slice of cake at a party) can spiral into feelings of guilt and the belief that they’ve failed.
This guilt often triggers further unhealthy choices, creating a self-defeating cycle.
Imagine working diligently on a jigsaw puzzle. If one piece goes missing, would you throw the entire puzzle away? Of course not! The same principle applies to healthy eating.
It’s about the cumulative pattern of your choices, not isolated incidents. Shifting the mindset from perfection to progress helps create a sustainable relationship with food.
Emotional Eating
Food is deeply tied to our emotions, and for many, eating becomes a coping mechanism for stress, sadness, or boredom. Emotional eating is often mislabeled as a lack of willpower when, in reality, it’s a response to unacknowledged feelings. For example, stress can trigger cravings for high-calorie comfort foods because they temporarily soothe emotional distress.
Breaking the cycle requires addressing the root causes. Without this understanding, the cycle repeats: stress leads to eating, eating leads to guilt, guilt leads to more stress, and so on. Developing emotional awareness is a crucial step toward healthier eating habits.
Building Sustainable Habits: Actionable Strategies
The path to healthier eating doesn’t have to be overwhelming. There is always going to be some degree of difficulty in sticking to a diet, but there are many strategies that will make things easier. By focusing on small, consistent steps, you can create habits that last.
Start Small and Be Realistic
Rather than overhauling your diet overnight, focus on one or two manageable changes. For example:
- Add a serving of vegetables to one meal each day.
- Swap sugary drinks for water or herbal tea.
Small wins build confidence and lay the foundation for bigger changes.
Reframe Slip-Ups as Learning Opportunities
A slip-up isn’t a failure; it’s a chance to understand your triggers and refine your approach. Instead of asking, “Why did I mess up?” ask, “What can I learn from this?”
For example, if stress led to overeating, explore alternative coping mechanisms like deep breathing or journaling.
Every setback is an opportunity to grow.
Address Emotional Triggers
Keep a journal to track emotional eating patterns. Note when, what, and why you eat. Recognising patterns allows you to intervene. Replace emotional eating with healthier alternatives, such as:
- Taking a short walk.
- Engaging in a creative hobby.
- Talking with a supportive friend.
With practice, these alternatives can become your go-to responses.
Simplify Your Choices
Reduce decision fatigue by planning meals and snacks in advance. Some tips include:
- Creating a list of easy, nutritious meals you enjoy.
- Preparing ingredients ahead of time for quick assembly.
- Keeping healthy snacks like nuts, fruit, or yogurt on hand.
By streamlining your food choices, you’ll have more energy for other priorities.
Set Process-Oriented Goals
Outcome-based goals, like losing weight, can feel discouraging when progress is slow. Instead, focus on process-oriented goals:
- Cook dinner at home three nights a week.
- Include a serving of protein with every meal.
These goals emphasise actions within your control and build positive momentum.
Celebrate Small Wins
Recognise every positive step, no matter how small. Did you skip the vending machine and choose a piece of fruit instead? Celebrate that! Keeping a journal of small victories reinforces your progress and motivates you to keep going.
Build a Support System
Share your journey with supportive friends, family, or a coach. Community fosters accountability and encouragement, making it easier to stay on track.
Be Patient and Trust the Process
Healthy eating and being able to stick to your diet is a marathon, not a sprint. Progress might be slow, but every small, consistent step adds up over time. Celebrate how far you’ve come, and trust that lasting change is within your reach.
If all of this doesn’t work, then maybe it just isn’t the right time to actively work on the diet, especially not actively eating in a calorie deficit. Spend some time eating at maintenance and working on trying to make healthy and intentional food choices. Then when you have some good habits in place, you can consider whether dieting is right for you.
Why Is It So Hard To Stick To A Diet Final Thoughts
Sustainable healthy eating is a journey of self-discovery, resilience, and growth. It’s not about perfection but about showing up for yourself, one meal at a time. This sounds corny, but it is true. Remember:
- Consistency beats perfection.
- Small steps lead to big changes.
- You’re building a lifelong foundation of health.
With patience, persistence, and self-compassion, you can create habits that nourish your body and mind for years to come.
If you need help with your own nutrition, you can always reach out to us and get online coaching, or alternatively, you can interact with our free content.
If you want more free information on nutrition, you can follow us on Instagram, YouTube or listen to the podcast, where we discuss all the little intricacies of exercise and nutrition. You can always stay up to date with our latest content by subscribing to our newsletter.
Finally, if you want to learn how to coach nutrition, then consider our Nutrition Coach Certification course, and if you want to learn to get better at exercise program design, then consider our course on exercise program design. We do have other courses available too. If you don’t understand something, or you just need clarification, you can always reach out to us on Instagram or via email.
Paddy Farrell
Hey, I'm Paddy!
I am a coach who loves to help people master their health and fitness. I am a personal trainer, strength and conditioning coach, and I have a degree in Biochemistry and Biomolecular Science. I have been coaching people for over 10 years now.
When I grew up, you couldn't find great health and fitness information, and you still can't really. So my content aims to solve that!
I enjoy training in the gym, doing martial arts and hiking in the mountains (around Europe, mainly). I am also an avid reader of history, politics and science. When I am not in the mountains, exercising or reading, you will likely find me in a museum.