The empty-diet-claim season

I don’t need a calendar to know that a new year has begun. I can tell by the deluge of new diet books that arrive in the office mail—over 25 pounds of mostly bad advice, about as much as many readers hope to lose before they have to shed the concealing garb of winter.

Choices include a low-carb plan that promises a loss of “up to 15 pounds in two weeks” in The New Atkins Made Easy, or the Paleo diet in Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat. Perhaps you’re more interested in unearthing the secrets of the world’s leanest people in Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, or learning to identify and curb emotional eating as described in Weight Loss for People Who Feel Too Much. How about activating “your body’s ability to burn fat and lose weight fast” via The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet?
It goes on and on.
The plethora of diet books are hardly good predictors of permanent weight loss. First, if any of the scores of diet plans published in recent years had resulted in lasting
weight loss for the growing legions of hopefuls, there would have been no need for yet another batch, including the ones that inevitably will arrive next December.
Second, as one middle-aged woman, who has maintained a 20-pound weight loss for several years, said: “Exercise by itself won’t do it. To lose weight, you have to eat less.”
She learned that, she said, after nearly wearing out her body by trying to lose weight through exercise alone. Not only does she now eat less, she also eats differently, having replaced many foods and snacks high in sugar and refined starches with more nutritious fare.
Another success, a friend in his late 70s who shed 25 pounds, eats the same foods he always did but now eats less of them. He learned to recognise satiety and to rely on that instead of a feeling of being stuffed to signal the end of his meals.
Clearly, there is no one pathway to permanent weight loss that works for everyone. The latest guidelines for physicians, who are repeatedly exhorted to help overweight and obese patients lose pounds, emphasise that a reduced-calorie diet should be based on individual dietary preferences and combined with “comprehensive lifestyle interventions” that would
best include participation in a professionally led programme for six months or longer.
Radical, abrupt dietary changes rarely stick. People soon tire of the restrictions and revert to their old dietary habits. Habits are not acquired overnight, and you should not expect to inculcate new ones overnight, either.
Small changes can end up making a big difference. One is to avoid skipping meals. Eat a nutritious breakfast every day and a wholesome snack or meal every few hours. I snack on nuts midmorning and have a digestive biscuit (70 calories) with café con leche midafternoon. The idea is to avoid becoming ravenous and losing control over your intake at the next meal.
Eat slowly—it takes 20 minutes for your brain to register satiety—and on smaller plates filled with one-fifth to one-third less food than usual. Fill most of the plate with foods like vegetables and salads that are rich in nutrients rather than calories.
Choose nutrient-dense carbohydrates like beans and whole grains over refined ones. If, however, you think a meal is not a meal without potatoes, rice, bread or dessert, by all means include them—but in controlled amounts.
Drink water or a calorie-free beverage with your meals. If you drink alcohol, limit yourself to one drink a day.
I crave something sweet after a meal, and fruit doesn’t always cut it. My dessert favourites include a graham cracker and two dark chocolate biscuits. And if, like me, you have an oral fixation, try chewing sugar-free gum. Or eat a fruit like an apricot or prunes with pits, then suck on the pits for the next hour or so.
Make physical exercise a daily activity. Decide each day what to do rather than whether to do it. Try to exercise for 60 to 90 minutes a day, broken up into several smaller sessions; or just take a walk.
Weigh yourself regularly. A weekly weigh-in is probably best while losing weight. But to maintain weight, a daily check can provide an early warning to cut back a little when you gain a pound or two. Five extra pounds that make pants too tight are a lot harder to shed.
Contrary to the claims of many diet books, effective weight loss and maintenance are not easy. One is only successful when one gives up ‘dieting’ and adopts a sensible eating and exercise plan one can stay on comfortably.