This can lead to a lot of pressure, and taking extreme measures when it comes to our eating and exercise behaviours in pursuit of your body goals. And a lot of the time, the “dream body” you’re aspiring to may just not be feasible for you and your genetic makeup. So it’s time to rethink your approach to summer diets, consider the pros and cons of attempting a strict diet during this time of year, and ask yourself whether these diets are really necessary, or the best way to pursue your health goals. In doing so, we’ll dive into the biggest mistakes many people make with their summer dieting, and how you can avoid doing the same.

 The Pros of “Summer Diets”

 1. You’re naturally less hungry in the summer.

 Interestingly, heat can help to regulate your appetite. Higher temperatures can trigger changes to your production of hunger and satiety hormones. This means you may feel less hungry or crave different foods, such as salads over more warming, comforting foods. While studies have shown this doesn't necessarily translate into changes in energy consumption, the fact that you might feel less hungry during summer can make it slightly easier to stick to a summer diet, as you have less physiological drive to seek out energy-dense, heartier foods.

 While the increase in heat does play a role in changing hormone levels, it’s also the fact that hotter weather changes the types of foods you turn to. People tend to eat “lighter”, or “cooler” foods during summer - with studies showing salad sales peak in hotter seasons. This is just as much due to seasonal marketing efforts and conformity to what the people around you are doing, as it is due to the effect of hotter temperatures on your hormones. But regardless, all these factors combined mean you’re likely to find it slightly easier to opt for less energy-dense food choices and reduce your food intake in summer, compared to cooler, darker seasons.

 2. You’re probably more active in summer.

 With the summer months comes more motivation to be active, engage in outdoor activities, and participate in both incidental movement and consistent exercise. During winter or colder periods, it can feel a lot less appealing to crawl out of your cosy bed, throw on your workout clothes, and head out for a run. The dark, rain and cold make this less than desirable.

 However, in summer the type of activities you do socially are likely to be much more active, and you’re more inclined to get in your incidental movement (things like walking to the shops rather than driving, or taking a stroll through the park with friends instead of going out for dinner). Plus, with the increased emphasis on getting “summer body” ready during this time, you’ll probably experience both increased internal motivation and external peer pressure to hit the gym on a regular and consistent basis, compared to in the cooler months.

 The increase in incidental and planned movement can make it much easier to stick to a “summer diet”, as you often feel more encouraged to stick to a diet when you’re exercising consistently and working towards a body goal.

 3. You have less physiological drive to store fat and eat more.

 During winter, your body is naturally programmed to enter a kind of “hibernation” mode. This means you experience a biological drive to eat more - particularly more energy-sense, comforting foods as we’ve talked about - and store a little more fat than you’d need in hotter months. This is because traditionally food was more scarce during winter, so our ancestors ate more in preparation for the colder months in case they couldn’t access enough food (like many animals still do today!), as they were able to burn some of their body fat for fuel in more desperate times.

 However, during summer you don’t have this same drive to eat more and store fat. So in theory, this should make your summer diet or body goals much easier to achieve than they would be in colder seasons.

 4. You’re less likely to comfort eat.

 During winter, there’s no denying it: you’re much more likely to turn to food as a means of comfort or emotional eating. Particularly in countries like the UK where people often experience Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) due to low light exposure and heat, this can leave you feeling miserable, sad and in need of a little pick-me-up. For many people, food offers this respite and reprieve, so you might find yourself eating even when you’re not hungry purely for pleasure or some happiness.

 Again, in summer this isn’t such an issue. The increase in light exposure leaves you far less likely to experience SAD, and there’s a general feeling of happiness and possibility during summer months. All of which adds up to mean that you may feel a reduced urge to emotional eat, again making it easier to stick to a summer diet.

 The Cons:

 There are, however, also many cons or downsides to attempting a summer diet. Let’s consider these now.

 1. It establishes the idea that you “have to look a certain way” to be deserving of living a certain lifestyle.

 If you find yourself embarking on your “summer diet” at the same time every year, right before it hits “bikini season”, this is not doing your self-esteem or self-worth any favours. You’re essentially teaching yourself that, in order to do certain activities (like going to the beach or on vacation) or live in a way that lets you make the most of life, your body needs to look a certain way. And until you reach your “body goals”, you’re undeserving of enjoying these opportunities.

 The truth is, many “body goals” are quite simply unachievable. Genetics and environmental factors play far more of a role in determining your body and appearance than your food and exercise ever will. So you may eat the exact same diet as your favourite Instagram model, and follow their exercise routine to a tee, but yet never look anything like how they do. And if you’re forever following these strict summer diets to achieve a body you’ll never be able to reach, then how will you ever feel worthy or deserving of leaning into life?

 Stop teaching yourself that you need to look a certain way in order to enjoy or make the most of summer. You deserve to do so exactly as you are, regardless of the shape, size or weight of your body.

 2. They’re unsustainable.

 Fad summer diets are not designed for you to follow long-term. They require you to follow really strict dietary rules, to cut out foods and even full food groups from your diet, and to intentionally minimise the amount or type of food you’re eating. While you may be able to stick to this in the short-term, after a little while you’ll find yourself feeling so hungry, or so desperate for a certain food you’ve forbidden yourself from eating for so long. The inevitable result: you end up overeating, binge eating, or throwing all your diet rules out the door. And each time this happens, you’ll eventually return to your pre-diet weight, only for the cycle to begin all over again.

 Think about this: if diets really worked, wouldn’t you look exactly as you want right now? Wouldn’t there be no need to try different diets time after time, to keep “starting again on Monday” or “beginning your summer diet” each year? Diets don’t last, and they shouldn’t. Your metabolism adapts over time to a smaller energy intake, meaning you gradually have to eat less and less and move more and more to maintain the same weight.

 So yes, summer diets will always fail eventually, and you’ll regain the weight you lost. Particularly considering the factors we talked about above which make it more difficult to lose weight or maintain weight loss during colder months, you know this weight loss is unsustainable when it’s achieved by following a fad summer diet. Don’t set yourself up for a cycle of extreme restriction and yo-yo dieting.

 3. They’re more extreme than they need to be - and this has lasting consequences.

 If you do need to lose weight to improve your health, then employing a strict summer diet to get there is probably not the best way to achieve this weight loss. By creating rules around which foods you can and can’t eat, under what circumstances, at what times (you get the picture), you’re setting yourself up for a disordered relationship with food.

 As soon as you establish that some foods are “good” and others “bad”, you begin to assign a moral value to the foods you eat. That means, you’re more likely to determine your own self-worth and how you feel about yourself based on the foods you’ve eaten… which, when you think about it logically, is so unhealthy and unhelpful. Would you cut off a friend because they had a burger for dinner, and a bag of Maltesers for dessert? No way!

 In categorising your food and placing so much emphasis or weight on your food choices, you develop such a fraught relationship with food and your body. You lose the ability to honour your own hunger and fullness cues, and recognise your cravings, because you’re too busy eating in the way you believe you “should”. You begin to punish yourself for eating anything you consider “bad”, and eating becomes such a stressful experience. You lose the ability to eat out with friends, to think of food as more than just fuel. You lose your enjoyment of food.

 None of this is necessary. In reality, you can lose weight when you follow a balanced diet that makes room for all foods - even those that are less nutritionally-dense. In fact, it’s easier and more sustainable to approach weight loss in this way. Why? Well, if all foods are equal, and you’re not basing your self-worth off what you’ve eaten, then you can give yourself permission to eat whatever you’re really craving in the moment. That means, if you’re desperate for some chocolate, you’re allowed to enjoy a handful of Maltesers, without feeling guilty for doing so. When you do this, you know there will always be more Maltesers available to you the next time you really want them… so there’s no need to inhale the entire packet in 3.5 seconds and then beat yourself up for it. When you restrict certain foods, you biologically crave them more, to the point where you inevitably overeat or binge on them at some stage in the near future. And this does far more damage to your weight loss efforts than having a handful of Maltesers now and then when you really want them.

 Plus, by having a healthy, positive relationship with food free from food rules, you’re able to identify when you’re hungry and when you’re full, and eat accordingly. You don’t overeat. Food doesn’t become stressful and anxiety-inducing. And you can eat in a way that supports your weight loss goals, without it needing to be obsessive and restrictive.

 Summer diets are extreme and unnecessary, and likely not the most effective way of achieving your health goals. Remember, health is physical and mental, and these diets put both elements of your health at risk.

 The top mistakes most people make when following a summer diet

 Now we’ve covered the pros and cons, let’s talk about some of the most common mistakes people make when they decide to attempt a summer diet - so you can avoid making them yourself!

 1. The “all-or-nothing” approach.

 Many people approach dieting with this “all-or-nothing”, black and white mentality. That means, they aim to eat perfectly within the diet’s rules and confines all of the time, only to slip up and throw the entire rulebook out the window. So instead of eating a row of Cadbury Dairy Milk, they believe they’ve already failed so “why not go all the way” and inhale the entire family sized block instead? This leads to guilt and shame, and the inevitable cycle of “the diet starts again on Monday”, at which point the same mistake will be made the following week.

 Instead of trying to be perfectly healthy with no room for enjoyment, approach your food choices with balance. Make room for the things you love, which aren’t necessarily the “healthiest” options. And if you slip up, forgive yourself and move on, aiming to make a choice more aligned with your goals the next time you eat.

 2. Short-term gain < long-term sustain(ability).

 The tendency for people to focus on the short-term weight loss these summer diets can achieve means many people overlook the fact they can’t stick to them in the long run. As we talked about earlier, diets inevitably fail. They slow your metabolism down, increase your cravings and hunger levels, and achieve weight loss in a way that you can’t keep up.

 So instead of following a summer diet that requires you to reduce your food or energy intake (and the types of foods you’re “allowed”) more and more over time, take the opposite approach to weight loss. Ask yourself: what can you eat more of, which will help you achieve your goals? You know that fruits, vegetables, legumes, lean proteins are some of the foods which are nutrient-dense, difficult to overeat, and likely to help you achieve weight loss while still feeling satisfied by your meals. So how can you eat more of these, and reduce your focus on eating less of other things?

 Remember, weight loss should be something you can sustain in the long-term if it’s healthy. You don’t want to have to keep embarking on restrictive diet after restrictive diet - that’s no way to live. So instead of following a super strict eating regime designed to shed 10 kgs in 2 weeks, aim for slow, manageable weight loss by making small changes you can maintain and incorporate into your lifestyle. This is the only way to keep excess fat off, and it doesn’t require you to make yourself miserable in the process!

3. Depriving yourself from the joys of life.

 Summer diets can be all consuming. They can make people withdraw from socialising (especially when it involves food), turn their back on their hobbies to focus more on their eating, isolate themselves from relationships, and lose any enjoyment or love for food entirely.

 But this is not the way you should live your life. Another reminder: food is so much more than fuel and energy. It’s connection, it’s pleasure, it’s a chance to make memories with loved ones, it’s comfort, it’s satisfaction. It’s also the thing that lets you sleep well at night, feel energised, be able to workout, fight off infections and illnesses, keeps your heart beating and your body functioning.

 You deserve to enjoy food. You don’t need to live on bland chicken breast and steamed broccoli forever to achieve weight loss. In fact, that’s again unsustainable and not the most effective approach. If you’re finding you’re depriving yourself of the joys of life, of the pleasure of food, and of the connection eating can offer, then it’s time to rethink your summer diet. It’s not sustainable, and it’s not as healthy as you’ve come to believe.

 4. Over exercising or not fuelling properly.

 When people go on summer diets, often their exercise levels increase too - after all, this can be seen as two sides of the same weight loss coin. But when you’re dieting and doing more or the same amount of exercise as before, your body needs more energy to keep you nourished, fuelled and energised for your workouts. Otherwise, you’re at risk of over-exercising and under-fuelling, which eventually compromises all your hard work anyway.

 When you’re not eating enough to support your workouts, this impedes your performance at the gym, reduces your strength, makes your workouts feel harder and more challenging, and decreases your enjoyment (and therefore motivation) of your sessions. So if you’re not eating enough, your workouts and their effectiveness will suffer.

 Plus, your body will enter survival mode, where it begins to try to conserve fat stores in case it stops getting enough food to function normally. It no longer feels safe in the knowledge that a satisfying, adequate meal is incoming in the near future, so it tries to protect you by storing fat that it can use as energy if it desperately needs to. So instead of losing fat, you’re actually storing it.

 Don’t fall into the trap of combining a strict summer diet with increased amounts of intense exercise, and not addressing the greater energy needs your body is experiencing. Your body needs nourishment to function properly and to keep you healthy - and this is far more important than any weight loss ever will be.

 5. Cutting out carbs or fats.

 In recent years, social media and culture has shone a spotlight on protein - often at the expense of carbs and fats. Protein has become the MVP of weight loss, acclaimed for its ability to increase lean muscle mass and support fat loss. Meanwhile, carbs and fats have both been demonised for causing weight gain.

 In truth, this is completely false and misleading. Each of the three macronutrients are vital for your health and your body’s function, and none should ever be eliminated from your diet. While protein is the most satisfying macronutrient, meaning it can help to support your metabolism and muscle increases and regulate your hunger and weight, carbs and fats play different but equally important roles. Fats are essential for your hormone production, allow your body to absorb nutrients from your food, provide energy to your body, regulate your blood pressure and cholesterol, and facilitate cell growth - among many other things. Carbs are your body and brain’s preferred source of energy, help regulate your blood sugar and insulin metabolism, facilitate cholesterol and fat metabolism, and support gut health - again amongst many other functions. If you cut either of these macronutrients out of your diet, or reduce your intake too much, these critical functions will be compromised. And the result? It won’t be weight loss. It will be the shutting down of important processes in your body - which can have a number of serious health consequences.

 Again, instead of putting rules on foods you can’t eat, focus on including more of the whole foods your body thrives on. Things which are spread across all three macronutrients, things like lean sources of protein, with whole grains, fruits and veggies, nuts and seeds, extra virgin olive oil, legumes.

 Some of the greatest dangers of any summer diet are that you fall into the trap of becoming too obsessive or restrictive with your food choices, or you stop eating enough to support your body’s optimal health and function. Summer diets can feel so limiting in their narrow-minded focus on weight loss, that this can come at the expense of your physical and mental health. If you’re cutting out more and more foods from your diet, finding yourself isolated from your loved ones and spending all your time obsessing over food, determining your self-worth based off your food choices, or developing a disordered and fraught relationship with food, consider this a sure-fire red flag that it’s time to reevaluate.

 Please remember that your body shape and size do not determine your ability or worthiness of enjoying summer and all the fun and activities it entails. Your health is not determined by your body size or weight, and if weight loss is coming at the cost of your happiness and energy levels, then it’s likely you’re aiming to achieve a weight that is unhealthy for you. Everyone’s body has a certain weight at which it’s healthy - and this might be a higher number than you’d ideally like. But your health and happiness is far more important than the number on the scales, so keep this in mind before you embark on any summer diets or extreme weight loss attempts. Remember, sustainable weight loss and healthy habits will always outperform fad, restrictive diets in helping you achieve your health goals. And in the meantime, get out there and enjoy summer - in the body you’re in right now. You don’t need to change your appearance to make the most of summer!