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January 23, 2007 Middle Park Times |
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Substitute a healthy lifestyle for fad diets |
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It’s that time of year again; the time to make New Year’s resolutions. I have noticed an increase in the number of weight loss and exercise machine ads on TV and in the newspaper. Most of the ads are promising incredible reduction in weight or unbelievable gains in physical strength / stamina. I also notice an increase in the number of patients asking about the “best diet”, looking for an easy fix to their recent weight gain.
There have been many studies looking for the “best diet”: low-fat, low-carb, South Beach, Ornish, Atkins, etc. While many diets have gone through a popular phase, most people fail on their “diets” within 6-9 months. Typically the dieters gain more weight back after they quit a diet than they lost while on the diet. Why do most people fail on these diets? Is it because of the quantity and type of foods in the diet or their genetic composition? The answer to this question is hotly contested by many people in the nutrition field, and there is no guaranteed method to lose weight and keep it off. However, there are several basic principles that can help you succeed in losing weight and keeping it off.
The first suggestion is to set reasonable goals for your weight loss. Most experts agree that a 5-10% weight loss of your current weight is an attainable goal that results in many health benefits. The weight loss should be over several months with an average of 2-4 pounds per month. If the weight loss is more rapid, then a person’s hypothalamic-pituitary axis can thwart their effort to lose weight by increasing their drive to eat and decreasing their metabolic calorie burn rate.
The second suggestion is to choose a diet that you can live with forever. If a person chooses a diet with the idea that the diet is only
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temporary (e.g., until they lose ten pounds), then they are sure to fail. The main reason for failure on fad diets is that people cannot continue to eat the same types and quantities of food that the fad diet requires to lose and maintain weight. A healthy diet is one that you will stay on for the rest of your life. The diet can vary with time, but the same number of calories ingested must be maintained over the long run in order to succeed. The new diet must be a change in lifestyle in order to be effective. There are no quick fixes to weight loss.
The last suggestion is to supplement your new diet with exercise. Weight loss in its most simple form can be thought as, “calories in must be less than calories out”. So, if a person decreases their food intake by 300 calories a day and increases exercise to burn an extra 200 calories a day, the net calorie deficit is 500 calories per day. This 500 calorie deficit would amount to a weight loss of 2-4 pounds per month. Additionally, more exercise increases the body’s basic metabolic rate which leads to increased calorie burn even during resting periods. If a person decreases their food intake by 500 calories, but does not exercise, then they do not get the increase in their basic metabolic rate (actually the rate would tend to decrease in non-exercising people), and they tend to feel less satisfied after eating, which leads to diet failure in the long run.
There are many schemes to lose weight and many are too good to be true. The “best diet” is to decrease calories into your body from food and increase calories burned by your body through exercise and continue to live this lifestyle for the rest of your healthy life.
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