Extreme diets like carnivore, keto, intermittent fasting grab attention because they feel radical. Cut carbs, eat only meat, fast for hours, and you get results fast. But the problem is in the aftermath. These diets don’t help you build new habits, they just hide the ones you have.
Take the carnivore diet. People report quick energy and mental clarity at first . That’s often due to removing processed food and sugar. But long-term, the absence of fiber and plants raises heart risks and gut issues .
Keto and other low-carb diets show similar patterns: short-term wins but long-term challenges, especially when carbs return. You’re not changing habits, you’re following rules that don’t survive real life.
Here’s why these fall short:
- Lack of flexibility. Because they’re rigid, any slip feels like failure, triggering a reset or quit cycle.
- No behavior foundation. You learn to avoid foods, not change your relationship with them or build sustainable routines.
- High metabolic cost. When the novelty ends, energy slumps or cravings hit harder.
A better approach? Build effective habit systems.
Focus on cues, defaults, and easy routines. For example:
- If dinner is your weak point, start by adding one vegetable serving each night.
- Swap one soda for water daily.
- Build consistency before cutting extremes.
Extreme diets work in the short run, but they don’t teach tools for long-term change. At ZANE, we don’t crash people into rigid dietary extremes. We help men build habits that align with their values, schedule, and energy long-term.
Extreme diets might grab the headlines because they feel powerful. But over time they fail because they don’t shift behavior.
Systems win by design. Make your environment support you. Add layers of simple habits one at a time. That’s the path to real change and real results.
