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Why Diets Don't Work

I hope you’ve been doing well with small changes in diet and exercise. If you have, then it’s time to step it up a notch - add a little more regular physical activity and make another healthy adjustment to your eating. Spend the next couple of weeks making habits of these new behaviors. I know that, unfortunately, many of you are more motivated by weight loss than by being healthy. I also know that it's hard to be patient - you want immediate results. I hope you'll read the following article and consider the advice. Included are links to some more great articles.

"When you want to lose weight, is your first choice to run to the latest fad diet? Often a quick 5 to 10 pounds will come off, then your old eating habits return. If you stick with it to attain your weight goal, you may still find yourself back at the same weight or higher in a few months. Why don't diets work?

A Diet is a Lifestyle, Not an Event
On many diets, you are not eating the way you will eat for the rest of your life. You eat foods you may not like very much and don't find satisfying. If you are determined enough, you stick with it until you reach your goal. But you know this is "just for the diet" rather than finding healthier foods you enjoy in amounts that don't cause weight gain.

Diets Can Be Downers
The very word "diet" is depressing to many of us. We think of giving up foods that are comforting and enjoyable. We think of sitting a party with celery sticks while others are eating the crab puffs. We may even stop socializing because food is a big part of how we interact with friends and family. We feel deprived, alienated and alone, except for others who are dieting. Eventually we give up and enter back into the world of happy uncontrolled eating, carrying negative feelings toward healthier "diet foods."

The Dangerous Yo-Yo Diet Cycle
Studies are finding dangers in the yo-yo diet cycle of losing weight, gaining it back plus a little more, losing, and gaining again. It is stressful on the body systems to have wide swings in body weight. We think each time that this time we won't gain it back, but the statistics show that most of us will. Yo-Yo Dieting May Weaken Immune System

Control Issues
At first a diet can give you a sense of control. You are taking charge of your eating patterns. You may see success as the scale drops. But soon you are fighting cravings for forbidden foods, as well as hunger pangs and a lack of energy from the lower calorie level. Eventually you rebel against the diet and start "cheating." If your cheats are small you can still be losing weight, although more slowly. But soon you may go into full rebellion and return to your old eating habits.

Diets Slow Your Metabolism
Your body reacts to fewer calories by slowing down your metabolism -- burning fewer calories each day just to maintain your body functions. If you don't add exercise along with the diet, you will lose lean muscle mass as well as fat and water weight. When you lose muscle, your metabolism is slowed even further and you would have to eat even fewer calories per day to continue to lose weight. It takes a conscious effort to increase exercise when on a diet.
If you don't exercise and then you fall off of the diet, the weight will come back on even faster, as your body is burning fewer calories per day. Even worse, the weight will come back on as fat rather than as the muscle you lost. Your body will look even less lean and healthy.

Solution: Get Active for an Hour a Day
Your first step to improve your health and appearance is to begin daily exercise. Clients of bariatric surgery clinics are prescribed an hour of exercise a day before they can be candidates for surgery. Some of them lose weight so successfully from the exercise that they decide not to have the surgery after all. The exercise doesn't have to be intense -- pick activities you enjoy such as walking, biking, or swimming. Get your body moving most days of the week. The U.S. Surgeon General recommends a minimum daily requirement of 30 to 60 minutes a day of walking or other easy-to-moderate intensity exercise for weight management.SmallStep.gov

Solution: Make Simple Eating Changes
Find a 100-calorie change you can make for this week. Perhaps it is drinking one less can of cola each day, or having non-fat milk in your coffee instead of cream. Substitute string cheese or an apple instead of a bag of potato chips. Make a 100-calorie change each week for the next six weeks and you will have made a significant change in your eating habits. Don't think in terms of depriving yourself of foods you love, but eliminate empty calories you don't really like and find substitutes that you can enjoy for the rest of your life.Moving from "Diet" to "Way of Eating"Healthy Foods Instead of a Diet

By making these changes, you can tip your energy balance to building and maintaining lean muscle while burning and losing fat. This will probably be gradual rather than dramatic, but you will eventually notice clothes fitting looser, your waistline shrinking, and your energy level higher."

Source: Mann T, Tomiyama AJ, Westling E, Lew AM, Samuels B, Chatman J. "Medicare's Search for Effective Obesity Treatments: Diets Are Not the Answer." Am Psychol. 2007 Apr;62(3):220-33.

"When you expect good, it's available constantly,and it makes itself a reality in your life."
~Alfre Woodard

Get Moving!

Exercise. You know the drill – lowers body fat, increases muscle, keeps blood pressure down, fights disease, etc. Those are all great reasons to exercise but they are long-term benefits and therefore, not very motivating right now. So, to get started, let’s focus on immediate results. Exercise makes you feel good by producing endorphins which are your body’s natural pain reliever. It gives you a physical release of tension and stress, relaxing and refreshing your body and mind. Exercising also allows you to take a break from your daily routines and worries.

Now it’s time to add the exercise component to your life. Commit to 20 minutes of exercise three days a week to start. That could be a 20 minute walk or bike ride around your neighborhood, a 20 minute workout video or just dancing vigorously around your living room for 20 minutes. Be sure to pick three specific days and times and commit to them – don’t wait for the mood to strike you, it won’t. Enjoy!

Eat Smart

Nutrition is an essential element of a healthy lifestyle. In order to start receive the benefits from yesterday’s list, it is critical that you learn to make smart food choices. I know it’s overwhelming with so much information out there about healthy eating. But don’t let that discourage you. As I said yesterday, start simple. Your next step is to pick one bad eating habit and replace it with a good one. Just one.

Here are some examples:

• If you drink soda/soft drinks, try replacing that with sparkling water (or club soda) with a splash of grapefruit or orange juice. That way, you still get the effervescence and a little bit of sweetness and flavor without all the chemicals, refined sugars and caffeine.
  


• If you eat chips, either cut them out completely or replace them with whole wheat pretzels, multi-grain crackers or, ideally, a piece of fruit.
  


• If sweets are your thing, eat one small piece of dark chocolate (at least 60% cocoa) instead of that king sized Snickers bar. And try rich and creamy Yo Baby yogurt by Stoneyfield Farms instead of ice cream.

There are plenty of great ways such as these to satisfy cravings without making an unhealthy choice. So, go ahead, change ONE thing in your diet and set a goal to stick with it for two weeks. Once you’ve made it that far, you probably won’t even miss it!

Leading a Healthy Lifestyle

We all want to look, feel and do our best. That is why we should pursue health, wellness and physical fitness. The benefits to eating well and exercising are endless, and I’m sure you’ve heard them all before (some of you may have even listened). But, at the risk of boring you, I’m going to go over some of them anyway.

Eating well and exercising will help you:

• Feel less stressed


• Build self-confidence


• Have energy throughout the day
  
• Keep a healthy weight
  
• Build strong bones, muscles, and joints
  
• Sleep well
  
• Be alert
  
• Maintain a positive, happy disposition
  
• Lower numerous health risks

…and much, much more. I’ve spoken with many girls who say they have tried to start healthy habits and haven’t been able to stick with it. This is all too common and it’s usually because they put too much pressure on themselves to make a bunch of big sweeping changes all at once. DO NOT SET YOURSELF UP FOR FAILURE. Start small. Set goals that you can realistically achieve.

Today, choose from the list above ONE thing that you would like to work toward and write it down in your journal. Then, without thinking about it too much, just write a page or two about how just that one benefit would improve your quality of life. And tomorrow, come back here and I’ll give you the next step!

The Three C's

This blog is intended as a virtual version of the live workshops I used to teach, “Getting Through Girlhood with Courtesy, Confidence and Character.” I shortened the title for the blog, but I wanted to share the original title as a sort of thesis statement for the project.

• Courtesy: Polite or considerate behavior.
  
• Confidence: Belief in one’s self and one’s own abilities.
  
• Character: Moral and ethical strength.

The Three C’s serve as a compass to help you navigate your way through any and every circumstance. Commit them to memory and refer to them often. You can be sure that when you handle a situation with Courtesy, Confidence and Character, you are handling it in the best way possible.