Nutritionist
In a recent newspaper column, Anne Diamond says that slimming has made her fat. Can this be true? Can diets really make you fat?
If you have followed one diet after another only to put on more weight in between, you will know exactly how Anne feels.
You follow the latest best-selling diet book to the letter. You reach your target weight – congratulations! But then you come off your diet and the weight comes back on, with more besides.
Anne, as she says herself, if a classic yo-yo dieter.
But what is yo-yo dieting and what effect will it have on your weight?
Yo-yo dieting is when we follow one diet after another. You know them all, perhaps you’ve even tried them all – from the Cabbage Soup Diet to the Food Combining Diet, the Beverly Hills Diet to the Blood Type Diet - there is no end to the abundance of faddy diets to choose from when seeking a solution for getting rid of those extra pounds.
With half of the adult population in the UK and Ireland considered to be overweight, it's little wonder that we are constantly searching for the "magic bullet" to help us lose weight quickly and effortlessly. But can diets that promise such easy results really be effective?
Unlike our programme, these diets are not based on the concept of balanced and healthy eating. They differ enormously in their messages; varying from the restriction of certain foods (or even practically all foods!), to the prescription of unlimited amounts of particular foods, even those widely considered to be unhealthy.
In common - they promise to be easy-to-follow and generally place no emphasis on the importance of exercise. Often the authors of these diets take a scientific half-truth and use that in isolation as the basis for their arguments.
Unfortunately, while these diets sound highly attractive, most of the theories behind these ‘wonder diets’ lack scientific evidence, and proof that they actually work is based on anecdotal findings, theories and testimonials of short-term results. Importantly, these diets also depend on us changing our eating habits or lifestyle in such a way that really can’t be continued in the long term.
But how does this lead to weight gain? We have a motto: all diets work and no diets work. If you severely restrict the number of calories you consume, whether that is by promoting protein, cutting carbs or only eating foods beginning with the letter ‘A’, you will lose weight. But, if you consider a diet to only last a set length of time, you’re setting yourself up for trouble.
The definition of ‘diet’ is: The usual food and drink of a person or animal.
During your weight loss diet, you might change your eating habits from your ‘usual’ choices. It’s quite likely that these changes are not the type of changes that you can maintain in the long term – can you really avoid bread for the rest of your life or take 6 capsules of vinegar (very expensive vinegar, at that!) before every meal for ever more? If your ‘diet’ involves making changes that you cannot continue in the long-term or fit easily into your lifestyle, your weight loss diet has to come to an end at some time. This is when the yo-yo dieter goes back to the ‘usual’ diet that made them gain weight in the first place. A plan like eDiets, however, will help you find a way to incorporate your favourite foods into a healthy and balanced diet, breaking the yo-yo dieting vicious circle.
After coming off their ‘diet’, the yo-yo dieter will regain the weight they lost. But why do they gain more weight?
This is because of the effect of fad diets on the metabolism. We all need a certain amount of energy to keep our bodies functioning – the lungs breathing, the heart pumping and the brain ticking over, for example. If we don’t take in enough energy to meet these needs, the body decides that it is being starved and tries to conserve energy. The metabolic rate decreases, energy is used more sparingly and the calories we do take in are stored more efficiently.
When the ‘diet’ is over, the yo-yo dieter goes back to their old eating habits but their body is still in starvation mode, hanging on to every calorie, storing up those calories better than ever and, ultimately, gaining weight.
So Anne is absolutely right – slimming CAN make you fat. But you CAN also break this cycle. How? The answer is to look at the bigger picture of nutrition and health and look to the true definition of ‘diet’ – the USUAL food and drink.
Losing weight is possible without the use of gimmicky and unhealthy weight loss diets. It requires a little nutritional know-how to balance the foods you eat with the energy you use. But once you learn how to make healthier choices that fit in with your lifestyle, you can reach your target weight and you can keep that target weight. Make healthy eating and healthy choices a part of your usual lifestyle and banish yo-yo dieting – for ever! Let eDiets help you find a healthy lifestyle and lasting weight loss!