Whether you are dieting for a competition or other goal, you will go through the 4 phases of diet stress. You’ve laid out all your plans for X weeks and have it thoroughly mapped out. You’ll lose X pounds each week and you have plans for sticking points. At each roadblock, you have to make a decision to stay onboard or take an alternate route. What do you do?

Phase 1: Worry

This phase tends to set in between weeks 3 and 4. It is at this point where your body has started regulating its glycogen stores. The body slows down the shedding of water and the number on the scale stops its dramatic bumps. You calculated your diet out properly, yet this week you didn’t lose enough weight. Even though you are still ahead of schedule, worry begins to set in…

Phase 2: Doubt

After another few weeks, you hit another sticking point. This week, you barely lost any weight. Your mind begins to create images of failure. You need to make a decision to continue forward, or drastically alter your course. You follow your plan and reduce your calories. This plan will definitely work… or so you hope. Doubt takes over for the next few weeks. You are doing everything right, why the hell is this happening?

Phase 3: Self-Destruction

You got over the sticking point issue, but it’s only two weeks later. You decided to reduce your calories a little lower than you planned just to be sure you would lose weight. That worked well the first week, but now weight loss slows again. This time you need to make a decision to reduce your calories even further, add in cardio, or decide to just stop dieting. You look better than you did, right?

Phase 4: Failure

You feel weak, depleted, and just want to be done. You cut more calories than you planned, and added in more cardio than expected. You feel close to the results that you planned, yet you aren’t totally satisfied. You only have a few weeks left, but what’s the use. Your mental capacity is shot. Your workouts are a struggle to finish. Do you forge ahead and hope for the best?

If you have dieted (and dieted well) before, you were answering the questions as you went along. You could tell exactly what was going on and how to overcome each phase. However, not everyone is so lucky to be able to have the mental capacity to stick with the plan (I mean in every movie they alter the plan, so why can’t you?). Each phase lacked consistency and thus the continued doubt.

You need to plan accordingly and account for any mistakes. If you slip up, have a plan. The problem that most people face are outside distractions. Parties and random events lead to mistakes. Plan for things properly and you will not fail. It’s ok to question your diet throughout the process. If you assure yourself during phase one that all things will work out, the other phases may never happen. It takes time to learn these things. Almost everyone will encounter these phases, but the key is to plan. Don’t stop at plan C either, plan for all obstacles, and you’ll have an eating plan for life. Fail and it’s back to the drawing board.