Traditional Dieting Doesn’t Work
By Roberto Garabell
If there is one constant in the world today, it is the fact that there is a diet for every possible angle of losing weight. The trouble with dieting, however, is that it simply does not work. Dieting is a fruitless passion, of restricting calories, depriving yourself and changing meals. But, in order to lose the extra weight you are trying to eliminate from the body, you must change your life and the way you think about food.
While there are clearly many diets out there from fad Cabbage Soup diets to 24 hour Celebrity Diets, there is no clear evidence that any of these diets work. As a matter of fact, if dieting worked, there would be far fewer people with weight problems today. But, this is not the case. Today, there are more people living overweight than ever before and this is a clear sign that diets just do not work.
Why don’t diets work? Deprivation is the number one reason why people fall off diets. When a person feels they are depriving themselves from the foods they love, especially after living a life of food celebration, they often become more and more mentally separated from the diet. Just like with any other decision in life, if our minds are not totally in sync with the decision, we will not succeed.
Another key reason for failure, is excessive restriction. While the human body can live on a calorie restricted diet for a short while, and often under the guidance of a doctor, after a short period, the body will simply demand more and more food. Thus, the dieter will feel as though they are starving and fall off the diet wagon only to eat more food and regain any lost weight plus possibly some more.
In general, fad diets and extensive diet plans require too many changes on the body and in a persons lifestyle to work on a daily basis. In order to make real changes and lose real weight for a lifetime, the weight needs to be lost slowly and through a plan that changes the eating plan gradually and in a way that is easy to stick with.
Dieting is a multi-million dollar business. The reason dieting makes so much money year after year is due to the immense failure rate. If you truly want to lose weight, take a few baby steps by being more active, and make changes that you can live with for a lifetime.
Stop Dieting and Struggling! Are you fed up of battling to lose weight?
You have probably felt like this for a long time - you keep trying diets but they don’t work. They’re full of empty promises and disappointing results.
Losing weight doesn’t have to be hard work, eating foods you don’t enjoy and boring exercise. Restrictive diets aren’t the way to successful weight loss.
Thomas is an dieting expert, he writes for Weight Loss Blog. Visit Traditional Dieting Doesn’t Work.
5 Diet Red Flags to Avoid
By Roy E. Vartabedian
A short time ago, I received a promotional booklet in the mail from a very well-known and “credible” company (they have an extensive scientific advisory board) that publishes a monthly magazine on health and prevention, as well as many books on various health topics.
It was shocking to read through it and count the many outrageous promises and claims made about their diet and health program. Here are some quotes:
“DROP 30 lbs. Fast!”
“INCHES OFF YOUR BELLY in 10 minutes a day!”
“Shrink Your Waist with a Vitamin!”
“Do You Have a Few Minutes to Lose 25 Pounds?”
“6 Hours of Exercise in 6 Minutes”
“Just 30 Seconds per Exercise Session!”
“See How You Can Reverse Your Sluggish Metabolism–Burn More Fat Without Exercising!”
“Top-Secret Fat Scorcher Burns Nine Times More Fat with Less Exercise!”
“See How to Knock Down High Blood Pressure by Doing Practically Nothing!”
“Get Younger Every Day!”
We Believe What We Want to Believe
As tempting as it is to believe these headlines, we need to engage our brains when reading these and filter out the noise and mis-truths. To help you do this, I will outline “5 Diet Red Flags” that you can use to help you filter out 98% of the advertisements on diet and weight-loss you see today.
5 Diet Red Flags
When you hear about these types of diets–run!
1. Diets that promise drastic, quick weight loss.
We all know by now that you can only lose 1-2 lbs. per week if it is FAT loss. That’s because there are 3500 calories per pound of fat. Between diet and exercise, the most FAT you can lose in one week is 1-2 lbs. So why do we want to lose more than this, faster than this? The only way it can be done is to lose water (which has no calories) or muscle (which has about 600 calories per lb.). Water just comes back later, and muscle lost just lowers your calorie-burning engine and metabolism–which is self-defeating.
2. Diets that claim no exercise is required.
Claims are made that a certain pill, cream, potion, or food combination will increase your metabolic rate so you don’t need to exercise. While it may be true that a tiny metabolic rate increase is possible with some of these methods, there are usually negative side effects to using them. But the big downside is that when you compare these methods to the actual increases in metabolism that exercise provides–their effectiveness pales in comparison. And exercise has dozens of positive effects on health and function of the body as well.
3. Diets that are less than 1000 calories per day.
It’s difficult to get all your nutrients on less than 1000 calories per day. And we all have heard by now that when you do this, your body goes into “survival” mode and lowers your metabolic calorie-burn rate. So it is self-defeating in many ways. You may have a moderate initial weight loss, but the rate will slow as your body adjusts.
4. Diets that differ drastically from the way you are eating now.
It’s true that if your diet needs improving, you need to make some changes. But if it is too drastic a change, or a way of eating that most people cannot possibly continue long-term, then it will most likely be abandoned after the weight is lost. That’s one more “yo” to the “yo-yo”.
5. Diets that claim to be effortless.
OK, on this one we need to really kick ourselves for believing. “It was as easy as falling off a log!” Oh, really? Obviously, true weight and fat loss that can be maintained and is healthy cannot be achieved any other way than by good old “lifestyle change.” Anything easier is either not truly effective, or has negative side effects from using long-term, and possibly even in the short-term.
Healthy Eating Made Simple–But Not Effortless!
How do you eat healthier AND reduce calories at the same time? By eating the MOST NUTRIENT-DENSE FOODS. Foods that have the most nutrition in the least calories will provide you with the most “nutritional bang for the buck.” They are the best foods for the human body overall. Fresh raw or steamed green leafy vegetables and vegetables in general score the highest in this category. Whole raw fruits come in second place. Then come whole grains, legumes (beans, peas, nuts and seeds), low fat dairy, and lastly–lean meats.
Another way to make healthy eating simple is to pick the foods that have the MOST VOLUME PER CALORIE. This way your stomach is filled up before you overeat on calories. The list of these foods is in just about the same order as the one above for the most nutrient-dense foods. Fresh veggies, fruits, whole grains, legumes, low-fat dairy, then lean meats. In general, foods which have a high water content usually are very filling. If the calories are less than 50 per cup–this is excellent. If 50-100 calories, good. If 100-200+, fair. Over 200-300+, be careful.
Combine these eating patterns with a moderate exercise program such as walking, swimming, bicycling for 30-45 minutes 5-6 times per week, and you have everything you need to do it right, and do it safely and effectively. The important thing with exercise is to do something YOU ENJOY. So you may want to walk or bicycle along the beach, or try a dance-type of class that will be enjoyable while the time passes quickly.
Research has shown that people who track what they are eating daily are twice as successful as those who “wing it.” Those who have a support group or buddy to go through the program with together, are twice as successful again. So increase your chances for success by putting it all together. Here’s to your future success!
Dr. Roy Vartabedian, specialist in disease prevention/health promotion, holds a Doctor of Public Health degree. His New York Times Best-Seller, Nutripoints, has been used in 13 countries in 10 languages worldwide. Check out your diet with his free Nutripoints QuickCheck at http://www.Nutripoints.com
