I don’t think I’ve ever been on a “diet.” Guess I should drop a “thanks mom for teaching me about proper eating while I was growing up” here. Yes, I struggled with wanting to be thinner due to societal pressure during my teens, however I always knew that cleaning up my eating patterns (not snacking, not eating sweets or fried foods) was the way to go – not turning to a Slim Fast drink full of chemicals yet not fulfilling at all.
The reasons most diets don’t work is that we make too big of a change in our eating patterns. We might lose some weight, but that way of eating (or lack thereof) is not sustainable and most people end up gaining back even more weight once the harsh restrictions are no longer followed. It is MUCH better to lose a pound or two a week than 10 in two weeks. Slow transitions equal lifestyle changes.
Overview on Diets
I don’t keep track of all the new-fangled diet fads, but here is an overview of the three most popular types of diets:
Low Calorie Diet – calories are units of heat based on the energy-producing quality of food; if the amount of calories consumed is more than the body can metabolize or burn off, then the excess calories are stored as fat.
- PROs for this diet: it is simple math – burn more than you consume.
- CONs: when you reduce calories, you reduce the fuel your body needs to sufficiently operate throughout the day. The body responds by going into survival mode – storing fat for the long haul and burning emergency fuel in the form of sugar, causing the body to crave more sugar. The body’s feeling of emptiness eventually leads to gorging and weight gain; thus the yo-yo diet.
Low Fat Diet – when the low-calorie diets popular in the 50’s & 60’s didn’t work, people turned to a low-fat diet; since fatty foods and high sugar foods tend to have higher calorie content, the low-fat diet focuses on eliminating just those foods. Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig are both based on this diet principle.
- CONs: the low-fat diet is what prompted the food industry to shift to fake fat (margarine) and sugars (saccharin, NutraSweet, and more recently Stevia). Pass The Butter speaks to the horrors of margarine and trans fat. Sugar-free products are just as bad. The fake sugars created are mostly used in beverages and have little or no calories, meaning they also provide no real energy. Manufacturers add caffeine which delivers a rush, but without the sugar provides no follow-up energy so that as the buzz wears off, you feel strung out causing the body to crave real food. Also, fake sugars have been linked to the rise of ADD, ADHD, as well as hypoglycemia.
- PROs: eating low-fat is a good general goal, but only if you are eating mostly natural, whole foods, which tend to be lower in fat anyway.
High-Protien/Fat Diet – Dr. Robert Atkins introduced his diet in the 1970’s, based on lowering sugar intake by increasing the intake of proteins so that dieters don’t feel hungry.
- PROs: excess protein is rarely stored as fat, so it forces the body to tap into the fat stores for energy.
- CONs: protein does not provide the energy that carbohydrates do, so it leaves you feeling dull and listless, and eventually your body longs for more energy rich foods (bread, pasta and fruits). Carbs hold water in the body, so much of the weight you lose is water and as soon as you eat carbs again, the weight (water) comes right back on.
The body craves what it needs to survive, however after continually following bad patterns, the mind quits understanding the body’s signals. As you can see, and maybe as you’ve experienced, the rebound after a diet actually puts you in a worse place than were your started. However, there is hope: you can create sustainable change in your eating patterns and never diet again! Stay tuned as my next post will cover how to create a year-long change in your diet.
All the info above and the next post is covered further in The 3-Season Diet: Eat the Way Nature Intended
Excellent post, as always!! I’m commenting as a Weight Watchers user. I see distinct pros and cons to the program.
I felt like the pros were twofold: a) the generic benefit you’d get from any food diary, and b) the reality of being faced with the MATH of what you’re taking in and how much energy you’re using. Food diarys always boost mindfulness, which totally helps dietary issues. But the additional element of having measured portions and having the math right in your face, that is really helpful to me. Plus, scoring points for exercise kinda feels fun to me!! The whole thing challenges my creative side–I feel like I am playing a game when I make up low “point” meals.
There is a HUGE downside to it: It is MUCH easier to use if you eat packaged food. I cook fresh from scratch for 3 meals a day almost every day of the week–simply keeping up with the paperwork of entering all that data ingredient by ingredient is a total drag. It’s much quicker to enter your data if you eat, say, a frozen dinner, than a meal created from the Farmer’s Market. Boo! My solution to that trouble is just not to be too much of a perfectionist about getting the entries perfect. If I made a from-scratch pizza with fresh ingredients, I might just settle for the “pizza” entry and assume that it can’t be THAT far from what I made in calories (even if mine is nutritious.)
Sorry to go on and on in this comment, but I am very interested in this topic and can’t wait to hear what else you have to say.
Could you pls provide more information on this subject??? By the way your website is wonderful. Sincerely.
Hi I have been reading your blog for the past two weeks and it is interesting, do you have a RSS feed?
Hi!
I have added an RSS feed, however it is currently behind the search field. Working on correcting in in the next few weeks!