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Diets Don't Work!
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.
Take the frustration, guilt, and
deprivation out of weight management, and
allow yourself to adopt gradual,
realistic changes into your life that
will make healthy eating and physical
activity a permanent pleasure. You
will soon discover what your body is
capable of and begin to look, act, and
feel your very best. Good luck and
enjoy all the wonderful benefits of a
healthy, active lifestyle.
This article is copyrighted by Global
Health and Fitness. Visit them at
http://www.global-fitness.com
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