Weight-loss and sensible diets - how to get slim and stay slim (AND healthy)Newsletter sample articleStraightforward, commonsense, practical advice on weight-loss and weight control based on years of research and logic! In my opinion there is a lot of nonsense talked and written about dieting, weight-loss and weight control, with the ‘something’ diet and the ‘something else’ diet, often based on particular types of food or on a special product or formula which is supposed to take off the pounds as if by magic, allowing you to carry on eating as before (according to some!) The biggest problem is not how to lose weight, but - how to lose weight AND stay healthy AND not put the weight back on again (which is what usually happens). In other words, how to STAY slim for the long term and avoid the ‘yo-yo’ situation. But it is possible, I believe, if you stop deluding yourself, stop setting unrealistic targets and approach it sensibly. You also have to take action instead of just dreaming, ‘wishing and hoping’, - and keep on doing it. First, I must point out: there is no magic formula. If you want to lose weight and stay slim, you have to change what you eat and what you do. Sorry to be so blunt, but that is the situation as I see it. And I have yet to be proven wrong, after many years of seeing others trying to lose weight and failing (in the long term). If you really, seriously want to lose weight and stay slim, you must carefully consider two important questions before you start, and answer them honestly: Q1: why are you overweight in the first place? (If you don’t know exactly what the problem is, or what is causing the problem, how can you solve it??) There are numerous possible reasons. How many of these, for example, apply to you? • not active enough - spend all day sitting, driving, watching TV* etc • consume too many sweet things - chocolate, cake, biscuits / cookies, jam, soft drinks (cola, lemonade, sodas) plus hidden sugars in ready-made dishes, breakfast cereals, tinned fruit in syrup, sauces, tea and coffee etc • eat too much fat (as well as carbohydrates) - butter, cream, cheese, burgers, fried food, crisps / potato chips ...... • eat too-large portions of food • have second helpings when one portion would really be enough • snack between meals, often junk food (crisps, sweets, biscuits, cakes etc) • drink more alcohol than is good (in terms of weight, at least) • eat too little fresh, ripe, raw fruit and veg (these contain enzymes which are vital for proper digestion) Those are probably the most common factors leading to overweight. In practice it is often a combination of two (or more) of these - and usually includes the first one! * did you know? - research has shown that when watching TV we burn less energy than when doing nothing! Not only that, but when you consider that many people also eat at the same time (often unhealthy snacks or junk food), you can see how dangerous it is in terms of weight control - adding calories but using up less than when doing nothing. Q2: if / when you have lost weight, what will you do then? - there are only three options, and the first two are not what we want: 1 go back to eating as you did before the diet ( = put weight back on) 2 continue with the diet ( = lose too much weight and / or eat unhealthily or even dangerously) The only sensible, effective option is: 3 have a long-term plan, not just a short-term diet. A diet should be permanent, not just for a few days or weeks, i.e. you have to eat food every day, for life, that does not make you fat and maintains long-term health. This has to be part of an overall plan for a healthy lifestyle, otherwise you are wasting your time. Put at its simplest, in order to lose weight effectively you MUST consume fewer calories AND exercise more. Ideally BOTH, not just one, and do it permanently, not just for a few weeks. Long-term, nothing else works. And I mean NOTHING. However, before you get too despondent, let me point out that there are certain foods that can help make this much easier since they increase your metabolism and use more calories than you get from them; so you can lose weight by eating MORE of these! There is also evidence that some foods can increase your metabolism and help to burn calories faster. See bottom of page for details. It is generally more sensible to lose weight - especially large amounts - gradually, not quickly, certainly after the initial drop. Typical ‘crash diets’ can be dangerous, as well as ineffective. In fact they are worse than ineffective - you actually end up putting on more weight than you lost. Why is this? When you drastically reduce your intake of food, your metabolism slows down, you use less energy, so you need less food .... so when you go back to eating as before, you put on even more weight. It’s a vicious circle. That is also why exercise is so important, to maintain or increase the rate at which you burn calories. Not necessarily strenuous exercise - you don’t need to run a marathon every day or take up squash. If you are usually inactive, a couch potato, then a brisk walk for 15 minutes a day (or at least twice a week) is a good start, or maybe some gentle ‘aerobics’ first thing in the morning, or even dancing around the living room! Then gradually, over a few weeks, build up to something a little more challenging, e.g swimming, cycling, tennis. Remember, this is fairly long-term. You don’t want to lose ten pounds a day. But you must stick with it - give up and you’ve lost. So set yourself a realistic target, something you can manage and will keep up. Not only will you lose weight, you will feel better. That can’t be bad. Incidentally, it is worth remembering that sustained, moderate-pace activities burn more FAT (as opposed to carbohydrate) than short, intensive exercise. My particular recommendation is walking - briskly, not a gentle stroll - as it helps you lose weight and stay healthy, yet does not require too much effort. So almost anyone can do it - there’s no excuse (unless you have some injury or disability which stops you walking, of course). You also get to see a lot more than when you drive, not to mention reduce your stress levels. And you can meet other people (get to know your neighbours!) Go at your own pace, stop for a rest when necessary, and try to increase your pace and distance gradually. At the weekend, drive out of town then walk around and enjoy the scenery; it will be good for the spirit as well as the body. Go and explore; it’s much more rewarding than watching TV. Now for the second part - eating less. This is a bit more complicated. (We want to do it properly, so it is not just a simple case of ‘only two potatoes instead of three’ or having a salad once a week, or using low-fat spread. This is just more self-delusion). The aim is to reduce your total intake of calories to a reasonable level, BUT to maintain a healthy balance of food types to safeguard your health. As an example of what that does NOT mean, let us look at the ‘high protein, no carbohydrate’ type diet which has become very popular (or should that be ‘fashionable’?) recently. Does it work? Yes .... and no. This idea has actually been around for a long time. I know many people who have tried it and had some success initially but not long-term. The usual story! (So they tried another different diet, then another, ....) But more important than whether or not it works is the evidence that it is unhealthy, if not downright dangerous. For a start, it is too extreme. Any diet that involves a very high or low level of one type of food is likely to be unhealthy. High levels of protein are not necessary and are thought to put a strain on the liver and kidneys. Moreover, most people get their protein from meat. There is evidence that eating large amounts of meat (even if it does appear lean) and animal / dairy produce is not healthy. Reasons include: 1 it contains some fat (animal fat, saturated fat, ‘bad’ cholesterol) which has been linked to cardiovascular problems, especially when combined with a lack of certain nutrients 2 it is bad for the digestion, leading to a build up of waste material and toxins in the intestines - which can result in, or contribute to, poor absorption of vital nutrients (vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids), constipation, diverticulitis and many other related problems, and according to some people even cancer. It also forms a breeding ground for health-threatening bacteria and parasites 3 if you eat a lot of meat you probably eat much less fruit and veg, so again you become deficient in important nutrients, further threatening your health 4 for plenty of detailed evidence that dairy produce is unhealthy, see www.notmilk.com Although it can reasonably be argued that we eat far too much sugar - especially refined, white sugar which consists of only calories (and no nutrients) - and this should be reduced, or even eliminated (see ‘sugar’ page on website), - the other part of this diet, cutting out carbohydrates, is even more misguided than the high-protein part. Some reasons include: 1 you need carbohydrates for energy 2 many sources (e.g. bread) help to make you feel full, and the feeling lasts longer, reducing the tendency to snack between meals 3 they are often in foods which also provide fibre (bread, potatoes, beans, cereals) 4 by cutting out carbohydrates you are depriving yourself of foods which often contain nutrients - vitamins, minerals etc - which are essential for health. Not just helpful or desirable, but vital. 5 replacing carbohydrates with protein does not build more muscle and does not reduce body fat - in fact it could increase it. Let me quote a well-known and highly-qualified nutritionist: “For muscle to develop, it needs carbohydrates .... large quantities of protein are converted to fat, not muscle .... high levels of protein can also interfere with the absorption of calcium .... Muscles can burn some fat for energy, but only when when there is some glycogen [from carbohydrates] present ... without glycogen, you cannot burn fat ... another problem with low carbohydrate, fast weight-loss diets: It takes at least 100g of carbohydrate, provided throughout the day, to avoid the body breaking down muscle protein ... not only is muscle glycogen [therefore energy] depleted, but some of the muscle tissue itself is lost” The glycogen stored in the muscles is also stored with 3 times its weight in water; if you do not eat carbohydrates, the body uses up this glycogen AND its associated water, so you THINK you are losing weight. In fact, you are losing mostly water (which is rapidly replaced) and probably muscle tissue as well. But not fat. And losing muscle means you look flabbier. Losing muscle also results in your body using less energy (calories), so when you eat you put on even more weight - it’s back to the vicious circle mentioned above ...!! The same is true when you ignore hunger and go for too long without eating, or skip meals. It is self-defeating. Research has shown that if you eat four or five smaller meals instead of two or three big ones, you will lose weight. But don’t use that as an excuse to eat more meals of the same size as before!! As I have said many times (on the website, for example) - the most important thing for a healthy lifestyle - and that includes weight control - is balance; a proper balance of food types, with a wide variety. The only question then is: what is the best balance? or to put it another way, what are the correct amounts of each type of food? (plus the appropriate overall amount) I’ll deal with this question in the next newsletter, otherwise this one could go on forever :-) In a forthcoming edition I’ll also look at the role of enzymes and why they are so important for a whole range of health issues, including weight control - and why so many people are deficient in them. Further reading The Negative Calorie Diet is the only book I have seen that tells you how to lose weight and stay slim based on principles that work, in my opinion - and with this one you can lose weight by eating MORE, not less! Of course, you have to know which foods to eat, as this book explains. Click here for details (will open in a new window):
'The Negative Calorie Diet' e-book details
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