Like many women, I have dabbled in the dark underworld of “fad diets”. Specifically, the two year span right after my 19th birthday. One too many nights on the town coupled with late night binges of Wendy’s fries and Chex mix had finally caught up to me, just when I had deemed myself invincible from the dreaded freshman fifteen. I’ll admit, I rather freaked when I saw numbers on the scale that I had never seen before and, as a result, I tried every trick in the book. Granted I had always been slender and the weight gain was not evident to everyone, but the extra fifteen pounds sat on me like a ton of bricks. South beach diet, the Zone diet, Atkins, low-cal…..I tried them all. Alas, never more than two pounds was lost and then I would just gain back four. And here’s why.
Any diet, plain and simple, involves limiting the number of calories you consume. It could go about this in many ways, shapes and forms but when you get down to it, they are all the same. Calories in should be less than calories out. Pure and simple. These diets may work at first and might be a temporary fix to the problem, but more often than not the weight is gained right back. When you restrict your calories significantly, like such diets recommend, your body actually believes that it is starving, so it converts itself to an energy storing mode. Muscle is lost and fewer calories are burned.
These very low calorie diets, though they would appear to significantly dwindle your waist size, actually cause the body to become less efficient at burning fat. This is why someone who has dabbled in fad diets for years and years is now stuck in a plateau and physically unable to lose any weight no matter what they try.
To lose weight the right way you must adapt to a whole new lifestyle, which includes eating a balanced diet of fresh fruits and veggies, lean protein and complex carbohydrates (low carb is NOT in) as well as exercising daily. Forget what you’ve been told about monitoring every morsel of food that passes by your lips. Get a trash bag and give your kitchen a makeover. Throw away anything with ingredients that you can’t pronounce, any junk food (think triscuits and cookies), white bread, full fat milk and yogurt and start over. If you want it badly enough you must be willing to start over from page one. Start writing a new chapter of your life filled with eating small, fueling meals every three to four hours and give yourself a “treat” every day such as a tiny piece of organic dark chocolate. Join a gym and hit the spinning classes or start practicing Bikram yoga. Oh, and walk everywhere. Get off your butt and WALK!
Lastly, don’t be too hard on yourself. Everyone, even supermodels, eats cookies sometimes. Life is way too short to not!
This is exactly what http://www.bodyforlife.com suggests — (1) small, frequent, balanced meals to “trick” the body reflexes away from “starvation mode”; (2) running to burn calories and fitness exercise to build muscles [i.e. you need muscles to be able to burn calories].
My own experience is that the only thing what works is reducing calorie intake. If you do fitness, you build muscles [and gain a few kg initially], but you need to eat more to have energy for the fitness exercises. I reached exaustion [chronic physical tiredness] point after 3 months into the schedule as suggested — with no weight loss. I was eating exactly as recommended, went to gym 3 x a week for 1.5 hour strenuous exercise guided by my personal trainer, run about 10 km a day at least 3 x a week. After 6 months got in perfect physical condition, but no weight loss.
Then, when the harsh winter started, I stopped all type of excercise and was eating reasonably healthy (no fat, butter, red meat, sugar or cheese — mainly out of concern for above-norm cholesterol level), but only 2-3 times a day and not much as I didn’t need the energy to exercise. Lost 10kg in about 3 months. Something I couldn’t do before with very intense exercise and the recommended diet.
Thanks for writing this article, Jenna. We need to get it out there that fad diets don’t work!