Here's a question I get asked a lot: "I'm eating  so healthy so why am i still not losing weight?"  

or "Why can't i eat this on my diet? It's so  healthy for you!"

These questions stem from a basic belief that eating healthy should help you to lose weight.

But is that true?  

Unfortunately the answer is a little  more complicated than a simple yes or no.

The first problem arises when we take into the  fact that everyone's definition of healthy food  or healthy eating, differs. Does healthy eating  just mean no chips pop or candy?

Is it following the Mediterranean diet? or is it a strict vegan diet?

Without any sort of standardization it would   be impossible to accurately answer the question .

Just so we don't get bogged down in semantics and  or the sake of this video let's say healthy  eating is eating for the sake of "good health" like to improve your overall cardiovascular health  or whatever.

This definition is super general and not that great but it helps me to begin to make my first point.

The main goal of healthy eating is to eat for health the main goal of a weight loss  diet should be to lose weight.

Although there's some overlap between the two and many people would say that losing weight is eating for health, the end goal for both remains different: one is to  be healthy and the other is to lose weight.

They are not the same thing. You can have one without the other, that is an effective weight loss diet that is not good for your health or a healthy diet that is not effective for weight loss.

That being said healthy diets are often effective at helping people lose weight because it cuts out a lot of unnecessary snacking and high calorie foods that lack good nutrition.

As a result, people stick more to foods they actually need to function properly throughout the day and remove more foods that are just useless extra calories.

The Mediterranean diet,  a diet research for its beneficial effects ranging  from heart benefits to diabetes to cancer also  find good use as an effective weight loss diet.

So how do we put this all into perspective? Do I need  to eat healthy to lose weight?

It all depends where you're coming from, if your diet is completely out of control and you're constantly having chips, pop, and candy general healthy dietary choices will  make a difference. Things like choosing healthier nacks like fruits and nuts will probably begin  to help you lose weight.

I've had people cut out only pop and soda from their diet lose tens of pounds right off the bat, but this was only because their diet was so poor to begin with.

But if you're already eating healthier say following,  a Mediterranean style diet and you're not losing weight, then clearly your healthier diet is not working for you to lose weight.

You will need to focus more on the weight loss aspect of your diet  and cut out potentially healthy foods that may be  negatively impacting your weight loss, and cut out potentially healthy foods that may be  negatively impacting your weight loss.   

For example, if you've decided to go low carbohydrate to lose weight, you'll have to cut out a lot of beans, lentils, and whole grain breads despite the fact they're considered a healthy food and full of good nutrients.

Understand that a "healthy diet" and  a "weight loss diet" have different overall goals,  if you've prioritized weight loss as the goal,  make sure your diet reflects that!

As before I'm Dr. Brian Yeung, bringing you weight loss tips on  this channel subscribe and hit the notification . 

Bell if you're interested in learning more and  share it with someone you know could use the help.