All dieting advice is useless, but this one

This is damn simple. Stop complicating it and misleading others just because you’re excited about having found a method that makes you happy, and maybe even works for you. Your keto diet, your intermittent fasting, your no-meat, no-sugar, your gluten-free diet — it only works to the extent it helps you achieve this one simple goal — not overeating.

Not overeating is the single, simplest, unambiguous truth about weight management. If you consume more than you spend, you’re at risk of putting on weight, period. Whether you exercise or not, overeating is a sure weight to becoming overweight.

Our modern lives, at least in much of the developed world, are perfectly set up for overeating. The portions are big, the restaurant food is abundant, the snacks are numerous, the fridge is always your friend. So while understanding the importance of not overeating is simple, not overeating is not. It’s not easy for me. I have to work a lot on not overeating.

I’ve been through all kinds of iterations in my diet, especially in the last couple of years as I focused on losing weight and becoming a top runner. The specific experiments — no meat, no bread — come and go, but focusing on not overconsuming food remains my most trusted method in how I maintain my weight.

Again it’s not easy. I never count my calories but I do rely on my common sense awareness of how much I’m consuming at any given point in time. Fortunately, I’m aware of how easy it is to overeat, even when the food…