Okay, I am primarily talking about "fad" diets here.
Actually, I don't have too much problem with "diets" which promote a lifestyle of healthy eating. I don't have a big problem with, say, the South Beach Diet. If you are going to choose an eating plan for health or weight loss, that's a pretty good one.
In fact, it's a good idea to have a plan of some kind about what you are going to eat, how much, and so on...
No, my problems with things like the cabbage soup diet, the eat-tin-cans-like-a-goat di... okay, I made that one up.
Seriously, my problems with the restricted eating styles which many people adopt in hopes of losing weight, looking better, feeling better, having more energy, living longer, or whatever the magic claims are, are pretty simple.
They Usually Don't Work and Are Not Healthy
I'll start with the big one first. Most of these things are either just big lies, or misrepresentations of some small piece of truth. They are not going to work, and following them for a period of any length is possibly going to result in you being in a worse place than when you started.
When you go on a restricted eating plan, usually in order to lose weight, you usually miss out on a lot of vital nutrients. This is not a good thing. Nor is the fact that, if you stay on a restricted calorie intake for any length of time, your body will adjust and learn to do whatever it did before on fewer calories. When you return to a normal eating pattern, and you probably will, your body will have learned to subsist on fewer calories. If you continue to eat the way you did before the diet, you will gain even more fat deposits on your body.
Exercise, Lifestyle Choices, and Health
It is possible to lose weight simply by changing the way you eat. However, if the diet is not combined with other important lifestyle choices, such as regular exercise, even the best eating plan is going to only be minimally effective. Whether it is effective or not, it is almost certainly not going to be healthy. The dieter, if successful in losing weight, may experience some health benefits associated with losing excess body fat, but will often create new health problems... some of which may show up later.
Two extreme examples of this are the cases of two ladies I know who chose bariatric surgery to lose weight. In each case, while they lost weight at first, they later gained a lot of it back because they did not institute any lifestyle changes. Even worse, after a few years, they both experienced severe health issues which were linked to the nutritional deficiencies which are a common occurrence after such extreme weight loss measures.
You Don't Have to Eat That Way All the Time
This is one of my biggest issues with most diets. If you are eating in a healthy way and getting regular moderate exercise, you are going to probably lose more fat than on most fad diets. With such a lifestyle, you will be able to enjoy what you eat, eat a wide range of foods, and take pleasure from many lifestyle choices connected with eating.
Just for example, last night I needed a quick snack, and it was a big, gooey, delicious chocolate chip cookie from Subway. I have no qualms, no guilt, and, better yet, no additional pounds, because of that. The reason is that your body will respond to your overall lifestyle. If you are eating a healthy diet most of the time, exercising regularly, and living a healthy lifestyle, the occasional indescretion will not wreck your health and weight loss plans.
In fact, many fitness experts, such as Bill Phillips, author of "Body for Life", and Tom Venuto, author of "Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle", actually recommend giving yourself a day off from whatever your diet is from time to time and just eating whatever you want.
Actually, I don't have too much problem with "diets" which promote a lifestyle of healthy eating. I don't have a big problem with, say, the South Beach Diet. If you are going to choose an eating plan for health or weight loss, that's a pretty good one.
In fact, it's a good idea to have a plan of some kind about what you are going to eat, how much, and so on...
No, my problems with things like the cabbage soup diet, the eat-tin-cans-like-a-goat di... okay, I made that one up.
Seriously, my problems with the restricted eating styles which many people adopt in hopes of losing weight, looking better, feeling better, having more energy, living longer, or whatever the magic claims are, are pretty simple.
They Usually Don't Work and Are Not Healthy
I'll start with the big one first. Most of these things are either just big lies, or misrepresentations of some small piece of truth. They are not going to work, and following them for a period of any length is possibly going to result in you being in a worse place than when you started.
When you go on a restricted eating plan, usually in order to lose weight, you usually miss out on a lot of vital nutrients. This is not a good thing. Nor is the fact that, if you stay on a restricted calorie intake for any length of time, your body will adjust and learn to do whatever it did before on fewer calories. When you return to a normal eating pattern, and you probably will, your body will have learned to subsist on fewer calories. If you continue to eat the way you did before the diet, you will gain even more fat deposits on your body.
Exercise, Lifestyle Choices, and Health
It is possible to lose weight simply by changing the way you eat. However, if the diet is not combined with other important lifestyle choices, such as regular exercise, even the best eating plan is going to only be minimally effective. Whether it is effective or not, it is almost certainly not going to be healthy. The dieter, if successful in losing weight, may experience some health benefits associated with losing excess body fat, but will often create new health problems... some of which may show up later.
Two extreme examples of this are the cases of two ladies I know who chose bariatric surgery to lose weight. In each case, while they lost weight at first, they later gained a lot of it back because they did not institute any lifestyle changes. Even worse, after a few years, they both experienced severe health issues which were linked to the nutritional deficiencies which are a common occurrence after such extreme weight loss measures.
You Don't Have to Eat That Way All the Time
This is one of my biggest issues with most diets. If you are eating in a healthy way and getting regular moderate exercise, you are going to probably lose more fat than on most fad diets. With such a lifestyle, you will be able to enjoy what you eat, eat a wide range of foods, and take pleasure from many lifestyle choices connected with eating.
Just for example, last night I needed a quick snack, and it was a big, gooey, delicious chocolate chip cookie from Subway. I have no qualms, no guilt, and, better yet, no additional pounds, because of that. The reason is that your body will respond to your overall lifestyle. If you are eating a healthy diet most of the time, exercising regularly, and living a healthy lifestyle, the occasional indescretion will not wreck your health and weight loss plans.
In fact, many fitness experts, such as Bill Phillips, author of "Body for Life", and Tom Venuto, author of "Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle", actually recommend giving yourself a day off from whatever your diet is from time to time and just eating whatever you want.
Donovan Baldwin is a 67-year-old exerciser, freelance writer,
certified optician, and Internet marketer currently living in the Dallas
- Fort Worth area. A University Of West Florida alumnus (1973) with a
BA in accounting, he has been a member of Mensa and has been a Program
Accountant for the Florida State Department of Education, the Business
Manager of a community mental health center, and a multi-county Fiscal
Consultant for an educational field office. He has also been a trainer
for a major international corporation, and has managed various small
businesses, including his own. After retiring from the U. S. Army in
1995, with 21 years of service, he became interested in Internet
marketing and developed various online businesses. He has been writing
poetry, articles, and essays for over 40 years, and now frequently
publishes original articles on his own websites and for use by other
webmasters. To learn more about diets and weight loss, read his report, Why Diets Don't Work at http://nodiet4me.com.
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Thanks for this enlightening article. One may try out hypnotherapy as a weight loss aid.
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