Where Diets Go Wrong
Saturday, September 10, 2011
, Posted by Immel at 3:43 AM
When we
discover that we are heavier than we want to be, we have a natural invlination
to eat less food. We may skip lunch or
eat only a tiny amount of our dinner in the hope that if we eat less our body
will burn off some of its fat. But that
is not necessarily true. Eating less
actually makes it more difficult to lose weight.
Keep in mind
that the human body took shape millions of years ago, and at that time there
were diets. The only low-calorie event
in people's lives was starvation. Those
who could cope with a temporary lack of food were the ones who survived. Our bodies, therefore, ahve developed this
built-in mechanism to help us survive in the face of low food intake.
When
researchers compare overweight and thin people, they find that they ear roughly
the same number of calories. What makes
overweight people different is the amount of fat that they eat. Thin people tend to eat less fat and more
complex carbohydrates.
Losing weight
is not something one can do overnight. A
carefully planned weight loss program requires common sense and certain
guidelines. Unfortunately, there's a lot
of misinformantion floating around and lots of desperate people are easily
duped and ripped off.
Every day one
can open a magazine or newspaper and see advertisements touting some new
product, pill or patch that will take excess weight off quickly. Everyone seems to be looking for that
"magic" weight loss pill.
Millions of Americans are trying to lose weight, spending billions of
dollars every year on diet programs and products. Often they do lose some weight. But, if you check with the same people five
years later, you will find that nearly all have regained whatever weight they
lost.
A survey was
done recently to try and determine if any commercial diet program could prove
long-term success. Not a single program
could do so. So rampant has the
so-called diet industry become with new products and false claims that the FDA
has now stepped in and started clamping down.
Being
seriously overweight and particularly obesity can develop into a number of
diseases and serious health problems, and it is now a known fact that when
caloric intake is excessive, some of the excess frequently is saturated fat.
The myth is
that people get heavy by eating too many calories. Calories are a consideration it's true, but
overall they are not the cause of obesity in America today. Americans actually take in fewer calories
each day than they did at the beginning of the century. If calories alone were the reason we become
overweight, we should all be thin. But
we are not. Collectively, we are heavier
than ever. Partly, it is because we are
more sedentary now. But equally, as
important is the fact that the fat content of the American diet has changed
dramatically.
People who
diet without exercising often get fatter with time. Although your weight may initially drop while
dieting, such weight loss consists mostly of water and muscle. When the weight returns, it comes back as
fat. To avoid getting fatter over time,
increase your metabolism by exercising regularly.