Three-quarters of our population is overweight or obese, and most people are trying every trick, hack, and gimmick under the sun to lose weight. But here's the thing: these approaches don't just fail to help—they actively make weight loss harder.

Let me save you time, money, and frustration by telling you exactly what NOT to do.

1. Calorie Counting

People think the only way to lose weight is tracking every little thing about their diet—counting macros, doing math on food, obsessing over numbers.

Why it doesn't work: If you're eating the right ingredients, you don't need to track calories. When you eliminate really high-fat foods and understand calorie density, weight loss comes naturally. You start burning your own fat.

But calorie counting? You have to physically do math three meals a day, every time you eat, for the rest of your life. That makes weight loss temporary—like going on a diet. And when the motivation wanes (which it will), calorie counting becomes work. If eating is work, you'll never stick to it.

Better approach: Eliminate the foods that aren't doing you any good (excess animal products, processed ingredients, foods soaked in oil), dramatically reduce salt and sugar, and the weight loss happens naturally. No math required.

2. Portion Control & "Everything in Moderation"

Telling yourself to eat less or putting a little less on your plate isn't suddenly going to make you lose weight.

Why it doesn't work: If portion control was easy, you'd already be doing it. You'd already be at the weight you want. But you're not, which proves that controlling portions of rich foods is very difficult. It makes you feel like you're depriving yourself, not getting full, just getting a little tease of foods you crave and trying to force yourself to stop after a few bites. That's really, really hard.

Just four potato chips today? Can you imagine? I could eat as many bags of chips as you hand me in one day. There's no way I can do moderation. If it's in my house, I'm eating it right away. Nothing's going to stop me, certainly not my own brain.

Better approach: Abstain altogether from really rich foods. What are you left with? Foods that promote health, promote weight loss, and get you into the body you want for the rest of your life.

3. Relying on Willpower

People think they just need self-control—if they tell themselves in the mirror enough times that they can do this, suddenly they'll have unbelievable willpower.

Why it doesn't work: You were born with a certain amount of willpower, and most of us don't have very much. I haven't changed a bit since in this department since the day I was born. My willpower when it comes to saying no over and over to rich, unhealthy foods? There's not much that will stop me. I'm eating them if they're around and easy to get.

I might say no a couple times in the morning, but by noon, those chips are eaten.

Better approach: Clean your environment. Get these things out of reach so you don't have to say no. Don't be faced with a million opportunities to say yes, hoping you'll say no again and again. Get those things out of your house. Stop buying them at the grocery store. Don't drive by restaurants you're used to stopping at.

As long as you're presented with the opportunity to indulge, you likely will after enough times saying no. Nobody's that strong.

4. Making Food for Others While Trying to Resist

"My husband still eats all these unhealthy foods, and I'm preparing his food for him. How am I supposed to say no?"

Why it doesn't work: That's the problem right there—he needs to make his own food. If the healthy food you're making isn't good enough for him, he needs to figure out how to feed himself. If you want to make health changes and be successful, you have to eliminate certain things from your environment. If your spouse can't be supportive of that, it's just not going to work.

Better approach: Have them eat junk at their lunch break at work. Don't bring it home. Or at the very least, don't make you be the one to cook it. You make a healthy meal, they can add their meat or whatever and slap it on top. That'll be healthier for them too.

5. Having Cheat Days

As long as you're letting unhealthy food in, especially if it's in your house, it's going to be really hard to keep it to just one cheat day.

Why it doesn't work: It's a slippery slope. Your cravings stay really strong. Those six other days, temptation is knocking on that door, and it's really hard to say no. As soon as you give in, it makes it very hard to avoid cravings.

Plus, it messes with your taste buds. When you switch from an unhealthy, ultra-rich diet, it takes time for your taste buds to adjust to real food. Every time you hit them with a "treat," you recalibrate those taste buds to unhealthy food. That goes hand-in-hand with cravings.

Better approach: Keep unhealthy foods completely out of your diet and house. As soon as you let them back in, you're starting back at square one.

6. Thinking Exercise Will Out-Burn Bad Food

People think their biggest problem is not doing enough vigorous exercise. They get gym memberships and run their butts off, doing hardcore levels of cardio, thinking they just have to burn as many calories as possible.

Why it doesn't work: You simply cannot outrun your mouth. The food is what makes the biggest difference with your weight. Exercise is important, but it doesn't take much to achieve your maximum calorie burn. Once you go over and above a basic amount (like walking 30 minutes a day), there are diminishing returns. More effort with less results.

Extremely vigorous exercise on the daily is much harder and more emotionally and physically taxing than just eating healthy food.

Better approach: When I first lost weight, I only changed the food. I actually sat on my butt during that time because I wanted to see if what plant-based doctors say is really true. It is. Change the food and the pounds fall right off. As your mobility improves and pain goes away, you'll naturally want to move more. Plus, it will be fun and not feel like a punishment.

7. Keto or Low-Carb Diets

This one's really popular, especially with online influencers, but it's not how your body actually works.

Why it doesn't work: Your body's primary fuel is carbs: starch, whole food sugars, and glycogen stores. When you switch to your backup fuel by depleting carb stores, you're burning fat, but you feel really lethargic. You feel like you're depriving yourself because human beings' natural food is beans, rice, lentils, potatoes—real whole food starches.

On a high-fat diet you're clogging your arteries and putting a toll your internal organs. There's not much fiber, so you're constipated and bowel movements aren't fun. This isn't how the body is designed to work.

Better approach: We're designed to burn fat only as a backup when we can't get whole natural foods. Don't hack your body into using fat as primary fuel. Yes, you might lose weight at first (depleting glycogen and water weight), but you'll be miserable and harming your body. Get full on potatoes and you'll lose weight.

8. Ozempic and GLP-1 Drugs

These have become unbelievably popular because they actually do work when it comes to losing weight.

Why it doesn't work: Not only are they expensive, but they come with lots of side effects. These drugs hijack your body to do something it wouldn't naturally do. That's decoupling weight loss from health goals. Plus, you'd have to stay on them forever. while results slowly dissipate. You'll need more and more medication as it becomes less effective over time.

Better approach: Accept who you are, accept your own psychology. Understand that healthy food gets you into a healthy state, which is also a healthy weight. Your appetite is the way it is for a reason. If you get full on the right foods, you don't need drugs to reduce your appetite. You'll eat comfortably, get full, be happy, lose weight, and get healthy...naturally.

9. Cleanses and Detoxes

Don't buy products made to cleanse or detox you.

Why it doesn't work: If you have to take some special proprietary blend, it's not right. Nobody owns the rights to health. There are no secrets from the Amazon rainforest or rare rose petals that you need. You're being tricked and taken advantage of in exchange for money.

Better approach: The healthiest way to detox is drink water and eat healthy food. Your body naturally detoxes, the same way that if you cut your arm leave it alone and it heals. Take out the stuff making you ill and your body heals itself naturally.

10. Extreme Intermittent Fasting

Closing your eating window or skipping meals can work for weight loss, but does that make it sustainable?

Why it doesn't work: Overly restrictive habits often lead to binging right after. They work while you're motivated, but when motivation dips or you have a bad day, you fall off hard. You end up binging not just for a day, but for a long time and gain all the weight back.

Better approach: You can play around with intermittent fasting as you're learning new habits, but it's not required. If you remove all the bad food, you can pretty much eat as often as you want. Find your body's natural pattern rather than forcing rigid rules. Don't restrict extensively, that leads to binge-restrict cycles.

11. Weighing Yourself Constantly

Checking the scale all the time doesn't help you lose weight.

Why it doesn't work: If you've eliminated unhealthy foods, your body needs time to adapt and get into a groove. Constantly checking creates anxiety and doesn't change the process.

Better approach: Go a month without the scale. Throw it out or lock it away. If you're honest about what you're eating and eliminating high-fat foods and processed garbage, the weight will come off. Slow, gradual weight loss is the goal. Extreme and fast weight loss is a sign you're doing it wrong. Be patient. How many decades did you spend gaining this weight?

12. Superfood Obsession

Anybody who tells you that you just need to eat more goji berries, amla powder, maca, moringa, chlorella, or spirulina is misleading you.

Why it doesn't work: Those can be fine, healthy things, but they're not the missing piece for health and weight loss. You don't have a superfood deficiency.

Better approach: Don't fall for the superfood trap. Focus on whole, real foods and not proprietary blends of expensive powders.

13. Getting Stuck in the Learning Phase Forever

You're learning about health, weight loss, and what you need to do for the rest of your life.

Why it doesn't work: You can create the most perfect plan, but at the end of the day, you simply need to get started. The best approach is the one you'll actually stick to. Don't get caught reading books forever without putting that knowledge to work or you'll be the smartest overweight person you've ever known.

Better approach: Think about your next meal. How can you make it healthy? How can you do that same habit on repeat without thinking about it all the time? That's sustainable. Stop learning and start doing.

14. Weight Loss "Hacks" (Even Plant-Based Ones)

Eating your biggest meal in the morning, tilting your bed at an angle, taking black cumin seeds at certain times, studying statistics and details.

Why it doesn't work: These hacks aren't the thing that made you gain weight, so why would they fix your problems? You got fat from bad food. The solution is no more bad food. These hacks are usually not easy, and when you pile up 30 things you have to do, you just don't do any of it.

Better approach: Do the simplest thing, change the food. The food made you fat. The food will make you slimmer.

15. Relying Only on Motivation (Instead of Process)

January seems to be motivation month. Everybody's amped up and ready to make all the right decisions forever.

Why it doesn't work: You can't be motivated forever. When you've lost a lot of weight and weight loss slows down or when something emotional happens and you're used to turning to food, motivation simply can't be relied on.

Better approach: Rely on discipline and habits instead. Focus on the process rather than the outcome. Don't focus on your goal weight, but instead focus on the habits you need day in and day out. If you have a bad meal, don't get off the rails—get right back on track next meal. Adopt this approach lifelong.

The Bottom Line

Weight loss doesn't have to be complicated, expensive, or miserable. All these gimmicks add emotional baggage and physical tasks that make it impossible to stick with long-term.

The real solution? Eliminate the foods that aren't serving you. Focus on whole plant foods: vegetables, fruits, potatoes, beans, and whole grains. No counting, no math, no tricks.

Make weight loss as easy and simple as possible so all you've got to think about is what to take out of your diet and what little things ensure you're maximizing results if that's your priority.

Because at the end of the day, it's about health, wellness, and living the life you deserve.