Weighing diets
January 5, 2005
By Emily McMackin
Finding a weight loss plan to fit your lifestyle takes
common sense, knowing yourself.
Atkins. South Beach. The Zone. If you're wanting to
shed pesky extra pounds in the New Year, you've probably
heard of all three of these diets. They rank among the
10 most popular ones in the weight loss market.
Others, such as Sugar Busters, the New Cabbage Soup
Diet and the Grapefruit Diet, are creating a buzz this
year. If you're looking for emotional or spiritual motivation
to lose
weight, books such as "Dr. Phil's Ultimate
Weight Loss Challenge" and "What Would Jesus
Eat?" offer help. If you crave accountability,
Weight Watchers and LA Weight Loss beckon.
With the deluge of weight loss programs and books,
choosing the right diet can be as difficult as sticking
to one. Kimberly Gower, 19, of Decatur knows. She tried
many fad diets before finding a weight loss plan that
worked for her.
A frustrating cycle
Gower starved on Slim Fast and no-sugar diets. She
got sick of salad on low fat diets. The few pounds she
lost always came back when she started eating normally
again. She tried exercise, but it only maintained her
weight of 250.
"When it doesn't work and you keep trying and
trying, it feels like maybe you're meant to be the way
you are, and there is nothing you can do about it,"
Gower said.
When doctors warned her that high blood pressure was
on the way, Gower knew she had to do something. She
signed up for a six-week diet class at her gym, Curves,
and finally found success with a low-carb diet advocated
there.
The weight-loss plan suited her lifestyle better than
others she had tried, but determination made the biggest
difference, said Gower, who lost 90 pounds.
"You have to accept that you have to do something
and stick with it," she said. "Going from
diet to diet isn't going to help you find something
that works."
No quick fix
Trying one diet after another counteracts weight loss
and sometimes causes you to pack on more pounds, said
Jennifer Johnson, a registered dietitian at Decatur
General Hospital. That's why you should choose something
you can see yourself doing forever.
"There is no quick fix," Johnson said. "Any
kind of true weight loss needs to come from more of
a lifestyle change. It's better when you can incorporate
exercise, moderation and choosing healthier fats, meats
and carbohydrates."
Weight loss plans that limit carbohydrates, such as
the Atkins and South Beach diets, are popular because
of their quick results, but dietitians warn against
any diet that excludes a food group.
"You miss out on a lot of vitamins available in
the grain family," Johnson said. "Your energy
level drops, and you're more fatigued."
Low-carb diets can be deceptive when it comes to weight
loss, dietitians say. Cutting carbs depletes water from
the body, causing the scale to drop, but not necessarily
because you're losing fat. It also lowers metabolism,
making it easier to regain weight when dieting ends.
Low-carb craze
Like the fat-free frenzy of the '80s, the low-carb
craze has food manufacturers making everything from
low-carb chips and bread to candy and cookies. People
indulge without thinking about the extra calories they're
adding, said Tandy Norris, a wellness dietitian at Athens-Limestone
Hospital.
"A cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory has
620 calories; the low-carb has 600," Norris said.
"That's only 20 calories less, but people think
that they can eat it because it's low-carb."
The most effective diet isn't low-fat, low-protein
or low-carb, Norris said. It's cutting calories and
exercising.
"That's not what people want to hear because it's
hard," she said. "They want something easy,
but it's not out there."
Knowing which foods will make you hungrier sooner than
others helps. The most successful dieters don't feel
like they have to starve themselves during the day.
Most liquid diets fail because they don't provide enough
sustenance to substitute for three meals a day, said
Decatur General Hospital's Johnson.
"Because it's a broken down food source, you burn
energy quicker, and it makes you hungrier sooner,"
she said. "It's like a snack that makes you feel
incomplete. You end up eating more at night and bingeing
later."
She compares it to driving to Florida with $4 dollars
in fuel.
"It's not successful for long-term weight loss
because your body is going to hold on to everything
you ate," she said.
Successful dieting involves planning and preparing
meals, an inconvenience in a harried society where skipped
lunch breaks and crammed schedules are the norm.
"It's the biggest thing that people tend to not
have time for," she said. "They plan and prepare
for their children, their spouses and their careers,
but when it comes to themselves they slack off."
Portion control
Even if demands on your time limit control over what
you eat, you can still determine how much you consume,
said Norris of Athens-Limestone Hospital.
"It's not that we shouldn't watch what we eat,
but we should pay attention to what size portions we're
eating," Norris said.
Those who eat out a lot can cut calories by avoiding
pasta, cheese and dressing on salad bars and ordering
entrees with less than 500 calories and 20 grams of
fat, if the menu posts such information.
Those who don't have time to cook can buy a pre-seasoned
chicken breast or lean meat and add canned spaghetti
sauce, vegetables and whole-wheat pasta.
"No matter what your end goal is, you should pick
a weekly goal like switching from 2 percent to 1 percent
milk or eating three cups of fruit a day," Norris
said. "If you make small changes, you're more likely
to stick with them."
Impatience causes many people to break their resolution
to eat right and exercise by the third week in January.
"They don't see a change in the way their clothes
fit. Their muscles are sore because they've pushed themselves
with exercise," Norris said.
Practicing patience
Most of the initial weight loss people see comes from
water. It takes about four weeks for the body to start
losing fat, but many dieters never make it that far.
The realistic expectation for healthy weight loss is
half a pound per week for women and one to two pounds
per week for men. That's not fast enough for most people.
"We're an impatient society, and we want to lose
it now," said Johnson of Decatur General Hospital.
"We forget that it took a year to gain the extra
weight."
Lisa Barbanell, 31, of Huntsville tried to lose 70
pounds she gained after a car accident on her own, but
it was the accountability she found at Weight Watchers
meetings that made her stick with it.
"In the beginning, there were a few weeks where
I didn't go because I thought I messed up," she
said. "But most of the time when I went I stayed
the same, lost or gained only a small bit (of weight).
In your head you think it's worse than it really is."
Barbanell, a busy graduate student who didn't cook
at the time, also liked being able to eat whatever and
wherever she wanted as long as she limited her portions.
"It was nice to go to restaurants and not feel
deprived," she said.
Knowing yourself
To find a weight loss program that fits you, whether
it's joining a center like Weight Watchers or following
a dieting book, you should analyze how you learn.
"We have to know ourselves before we can understand
what works best for us," Johnson said. "That's
why it's so hard, why a lot of people try different
diets because they're not sure what works for them."
Beating yourself up when you cheat is the worst thing
you can do, said Norris, especially when changing your
eating habits is as difficult as learning to write with
a different hand.
"The earlier you catch yourself, the easier it
is to get back on track," she said. "If you
go for weeks, it's like starting over again."
Those who finally see success "know that what
it feels like to lose weight is worth the day-to-day
sacrifices," Norris said.
Just ask Gower how thin feels.
"I have more confidence when I go out in public
now, and I don't feel like everyone is staring at me,"
she said. "I can buy clothes that people my age
wear, and I don't have to go to the plus-size racks."
Red flags of fad diets
How do you spot a fad diet? Diets with these qualities
signal bad nutrition advice, according to the American
Dietetic Association.
- Recommendations that promise a quick fix or sell
a product
- Lists of "good" and "bad" foods
- Claims that are too good to be true
- Recommendations based on a single study, a study
published without peer reviews or a study that ignores
differences among individuals or groups.
- Dramatic statements refuted by reputable scientific
organizations
- Simplistic conclusions drawn from a complex study
Source:www.decaturdaily.com
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