{"id":3303,"date":"2024-10-22T08:00:25","date_gmt":"2024-10-22T13:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/personaltrainerfoodblog.com\/?p=3303"},"modified":"2026-02-02T23:41:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T05:41:40","slug":"back-to-the-future-how-dieting-has-changed-from-1985-to-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.personaltrainerfood.com\/blog\/back-to-the-future-how-dieting-has-changed-from-1985-to-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to the Future: How Dieting Has Changed From 1985 to 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Shane Allen<\/strong>
\nCPT, WMS, CSN<\/em><\/p>\n

Today is October 21, 2015\u2014that magical day we\u2019ve all been waiting for when Christopher Lloyd takes Michael J. Fox\u201cBack to the Future\u201d (part 2.)<\/p>\n

There\u2019s just one problem. Look around. There are no flying cars, no auto-lacing sneakers and no hover boards that actually hover. It seems we\u2019ve been slacking on the creation of cool things for our self-prophesized future. Even our high-tech I-Phones are susceptible to being rendered unusable by one fall from a multitasking hand.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, too, thoughts about dieting and weight loss haven\u2019t changed much since the 1980\u2019s.<\/p>\n

There is slightly good news: thanks to companies like Personal Trainer Food<\/a>™, folks are very slowly changing the way they think about those \u201clow fat\u201d foods that became popular in the 80\u2019s after our government thought that fat was bad. Turns out, science continues to tell us that fat isn\u2019t the heavy culprit we once thought it was.<\/p>\n

You hear me say it all the time on TV and radio appearances: Fat doesn\u2019t metabolize into fat on your body when you eat it. That\u2019s simply not how our bodies work.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a closer look at\u00a0just a few ways we\u00a0thought about weight loss in the 1980\u2019s, compared with now:<\/p>\n

Low Fat<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ll state this plain and simple: \u201cLow fat\u201d on a label generally means high carbs and high sugar\u2014the main culprits for weight gain.<\/p>\n

Jane Fonda<\/h2>\n

Jane Fonda began the aerobics craze of the early 80\u2019s. This was followed very quickly by the still active \u201cJazzercise\u201d classes. \u00a0Richard Simmons would join in the fray later in the 80\u2019s as people sweated to the oldies.<\/p>\n

While exercise is important, today we know that you cannot outrun (or out jazzercise) a bad diet. The food you eat is the most important part of your weight loss or weight management plan.<\/p>\n

Focus on eating meats, vegetables, eggs, cheeses and nuts while reducing or avoiding starchy carbs, sugars and alcohol.<\/p>\n

Weight Loss Centers<\/h2>\n

As a child, I remember my mother Janice driving my brother and me to a weight loss center every week. We sat bored as we watched a room full of unhappy women weigh in and discuss their progress, or (mostly) lack thereof.<\/p>\n

My mom never met her goal weight by going to a weight loss center. Most other people don\u2019t either.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until Janice realized she had an addiction to bread that she really took control of her weight.<\/p>\n

While losing weight with a group of people can give you positive results, most weight loss centers focus on the archaic \u201cscience\u201d of calorie counting. Calories in vs. calories out is a myth. And it’s unnecessary math during the day.<\/p>\n

The concept hasn\u2019t died, however. I recently got into a conversation with a newspaper journalist who berated me for even suggesting he consider my expert weight loss advice of dropping his food scale and daily calorie counting. He too was going to a weight loss center and seeing no results. Unfortunately, he didn\u2019t take me up on my offer to help him. He still checks in every week via social media to the same, sad weight loss center. And he still looks exactly the same.<\/p>\n

Just like I said before: focus on eating meats, vegetables, eggs, cheeses and nuts while reducing or avoiding starchy carbs, sugars and alcohol.\u00a0 I promise you will lose weight\u2014we\u2019ve seen it time, and time again. \u00a0And by focusing on what<\/em> you’re eating, you’re not worrying about how much<\/em> you’re eating– which means no calorie counting!<\/p>\n

Need a weight loss buddy, or have questions?\u00a0 Our 1-on-1 Weight Loss Coaches are here for you every week at 1-800-273-1686. They\u2019re real, live people with their own stories of weight loss. They\u2019ve helped thousands of Americans lose weight and keep it off.<\/p>\n

What Did I Miss?<\/h2>\n

I know I’ve left out some crazy 80’s diet fads, like the one where Elizabeth Taylor told everyone to eat vegetables and dip at 3pm every day to lose weight. \u00a0Vegetables, yes. Dip? Maybe. Eating them at 3pm for the specific goal of weight loss? Poppycock.<\/p>\n

What ones do you remember? Post them in the comments section below and I’ll tell you how and if the science has changed.<\/p>\n

Happy Back to the Future Day!<\/p>\n

\n

\"Shane\"<\/p>\n

About the Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shane Allen is a certified weight loss specialist, personal trainer and sports nutritionist. He joined Personal Trainer Food™ after 12 years in television news where he worked both on air and behind the scenes in news management. Shane is an EMMY\u00ae, Edward R. Murrow, National Society of Professional Journalists and Texas Associated Press Broadcasters award-winner.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shane Allen CPT, WMS, CSN Today is October 21, 2015\u2014that magical day we\u2019ve all been waiting for when Christopher Lloyd takes Michael J. Fox\u201cBack to the Future\u201d (part 2.) There\u2019s just one problem. Look around. There are no flying cars, no auto-lacing sneakers and no hover boards that actually hover. It seems we\u2019ve been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[167,727,635],"class_list":{"0":"post-3303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"category-truth-in-weight-loss","9":"tag-diet","10":"tag-the-ptf-way","11":"tag-weight-loss-news","12":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.personaltrainerfood.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/scale.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7cwqv-Rh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.personaltrainerfood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.personaltrainerfood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.personaltrainerfood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.personaltrainerfood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.personaltrainerfood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3303"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.personaltrainerfood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21086,"href":"https:\/\/www.personaltrainerfood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3303\/revisions\/21086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.personaltrainerfood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.personaltrainerfood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.personaltrainerfood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.personaltrainerfood.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}