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Diets Don't Work! Provided
by Global Health & Fitness Many Americans view a healthy
lifestyle as something difficult to attain--and something that's not much
fun. Traditional diets have taught us that to lose weight, we must count
calories, keep track of everything we eat, and deprive ourselves by
limiting the amount--and kinds--of foods we eat. Diets tell us exactly
what and how much food to eat, regardless of our preferences and
individual relationships with hunger and satiety. Dieting can help us lose
weight (fat, muscle, and water) in the short term but is so unnatural and
so unrealistic that it can never become a lifestyle that we can live with,
let alone enjoy! While very few diets teach
healthy low-fat shopping, cooking, and dining-out strategies, many offer
unrealistic recommendations and encourage health-threatening restrictions.
Even more important, diets don't teach us the safest, most effective ways
to exercise; they don't teach us how to deal with our cravings and our
desires, or how to attend to our feelings of hunger and fullness.
Eventually, we become tired of the complexity, the hunger, the lack of
flavor, the lack of flexibility, the lack of energy, and the feeling of
deprivation. We quit our diets and gain back the weight we've lost;
sometimes we gain even more! Each time we go on another
diet of deprivation, the weight becomes more difficult to lose, and we
become even more frustrated and discouraged. Then we eat more and exercise
less, causing ourselves more frustration, discouragement, depression. Soon
we are in a vicious cycle. We begin to ask ourselves, "Why
bother?" We begin to blame ourselves for having no will power when
what we really need is clear, scientifically-based information that will
help us develop a healthier lifestyle we can live with for the rest of our
lives. Deliberate restriction of
food intake in order to lose weight or to prevent weight gain, known as
dieting, is the path that millions of people all over the world are taking
in order to reach a desired body weight or appearance. Preoccupation with
body shape, size, and weight creates an unhealthy lifestyle of emotional
and physical deprivation. Diets take control away from us. Many of us who diet get
caught in a "yo-yo" cycle that begins with low self-acceptance
and results in structured eating and living because we lack trust in our
body and are unwilling to listen and adhere to our body's signals of
hunger and fullness. On diets, we distrust and ignore internal signs of
appetite, hunger, and our need to be physically and psychologically
satisfied. Instead, we depend on diet plans, measured portions, and a
prescribed frequency for eating. As a result, many of us have
lost the ability to eat in response to our physical needs; we experience
feelings of deprivation, then binge, and finally terminate our
"health" program. This in turn leads to guilt, defeat, weight
gain, low self-esteem, and then we're back to the beginning of the yo-yo
diet cycle. Rather than making us feel better about ourselves, diets set
us up for failure and erode our self-esteem. The attitudes and practices
acquired through years of dieting are likely to result in a body weight
and size obsession, low self-esteem, poor nutrition and excessive or
inadequate exercise. Weight loss from following a rigid diet is usually
temporary. Most diets are too drastic to maintain; they are unrealistic
and unpleasant; they are physically and emotionally stressful. And most of
us just resume our old eating and activity patterns. Diets control us; we
are not in control. People who try to live by diet lists and rules learn
little or nothing about proper nutrition and how to enjoy their meals,
physical activity, and a healthy lifestyle. No one can realistically live
in the diet mode for the rest of their life, depriving themselves of the
true pleasures of healthy eating and activity. We Don't Fail Diets; They
Fail Us! Decades of research have
shown that diets, both self-initiated and professionally-led, are
ineffective at producing long-term health and weight loss (or weight
control). When your diet fails to keep the weight off, you may say to
yourself, "If only I didn't love food so much . . . If I could just
exercise more often . . . If I just had more will power." The problem
is not personal weakness or lack of will power. Only 5 percent of people
who go on diets are successful. Please understand that we are not failing
diets; diets are failing us. The reason 95 percent of all
traditional diets fail is simple. When you go on a low-calorie diet, your
body thinks you are starving; it actually becomes more efficient at
storing fat by slowing down your metabolism. When you stop this
unrealistic eating plan, your metabolism is still slow and inefficient
that you gain the weight back even faster, even though you may still be
eating less than you were before you went on the diet. In addition, low-calorie
diets cause you to lose both muscle and fat in equal amounts. However,
when you eventually gain back the weight, it is all fat and not muscle,
causing your metabolism to slow down even more. Now you have extra weight,
a less healthy body composition, and a less attractive physique. Diets require you to
sacrifice by being hungry; they don't allow you to enjoy the foods you
love. This does not teach you habits which you can maintain after the diet
is over. Most diet programs force you to lower your caloric intake to
dangerously low levels. The common theory is that if you eat fewer
calories than you burn, you will lose weight. But when you eat fewer
calories than your body needs to maintain its life-sustaining activities,
you're actually losing muscle in addition to fat. Your body breaks down
its own muscles to provide the needed energy for survival. Traditional diets which use
calorie restriction to produce weight loss are no longer appropriate. Most
weight-loss programs measure success solely in terms of the number of
pounds lost per weight loss attempt. Diets don't take into account the
quality of the process used to achieve that weight loss or the very small
likelihood of sustained weight loss. For long-term good health, you need
to move away from low-calorie diets and focus on enjoyable physical
activity and good nutrition. Exercising regularly and eating
lean-supporting calories, protein and carbohydrates, and reducing
fat-supporting calories will not only help you look and feel better, it
will also significantly reduce your risk of disease. America spends billions of
dollars on different ways to fix people. If we focused more on prevention
and on improving our day-to-day behaviors, we could cut health care costs
in half. Contrary to popular belief, leading a healthy lifestyle doesn't
have to be difficult; it doesn't have to painful or time-consuming. Making
gradual, simple changes in your diet and physical activity will make great
improvements in your health and well-being, and they can drastically
reduce your risk of disease. If your weight management
program is to be a success, everything you eat and every exercise you do
must be a pleasurable experience. If you're not enjoying yourself, it is
unlikely that you'll continue your program. It's that simple. These small,
gradual changes are not painful or overwhelming but rather the core of an
exciting lifestyle that you will look forward to. |
