I often tell people, when it comes to dieting, food becomes a chore, not pleasure.

What typically surprises clients is when they’re trying to add lean muscle, lose fat or both, they must eat every two to three hours. For some reason, most people think to lose weight, you must starve yourself.

Well, guess what? You’re right. You will lose weight, but some of that weight loss is muscle tissue. To lose weight properly, you must eat and never go hungry.

Remember in 1988 when Oprah Winfrey stepped on stage to millions of viewers, and modeled an old pair of her size 10 Calvin Klein jeans?

For four months, under a doctor’s supervision, Oprah only drank a 400-calorie-a-day liquid to lose 67 pounds. She even wheeled in 67 pounds of blob in a wheel barrel to show the audience. Oprah was every woman’s hero for her weight loss success. I will agree, it takes a lot of discipline to pull that off.

But, that was one of the worst diets to ever hit the market, and here’s why.

In case you didn’t know, within two days, Oprah could no longer wear those jeans — ever. The first thing Oprah did when she walked off stage was destroy a whole bag of potato chips in her dressing room, and the diet catastrophe process began.

Oprah’s body went into a catabolic state, which is what happens when you starve yourself. Our bodies are determined to keep organs functioning and will do what’s necessary for survival. What this means is Oprah’s body chewed up her own muscle tissue as fuel to survive.

Now, when Oprah started eating again, she added more fat onto less muscle. That’s why she looked like crap for a long time.

What happens with most diets is you are forced to eliminate certain foods. I’m not referring to fried or other processed foods, but actual healthy nutritional food. Our bodies need all the macro and micro nutrients that comes with all fresh foods. This pertains to protein, carbs, veggies and healthy fats. Yes, fats.

Just remember, when it comes to getting our bodies healthy again, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.