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Why
is it that diets seem to always fail?
Jan 24, 2008
Suzanne Havala Hobbs
“Diets
don’t work.”
If you’ve tried to lose weight, it’s a phrase
you may have heard – or said yourself out of frustration.
But exactly what do we mean when we say it? More to the point:
What’s the alternative?
Most weight-loss diets are doomed from the start. Nutritionists
and diet researchers know that most people who go on diets
to lose weight are unsuccessful. Which diets don’t work?
* Fad diets. Remember cabbage soup and grapefruit diets? Dieting
by blood type? There are hundreds of fad diets. Most promise
a quick initial weight loss – a jumpstart to keep you
interested – and there’s usually a simple gimmick.
For example, the diet may be high in protein, focus on one
food, include a rigid list of do’s and don’ts,
or require detailed time intervals for meals. The science
doesn’t support them as effective, and most aren’t
healthful for an extended period of time.
* Extreme diets. Very low-calorie diets – less than
1,000 calories per day – set most people up for a dietary
breakdown. Like fad diets, it’s hard to sustain a semi-starvation
diet for more than a few weeks. You may lose a few pounds
at the outset, but then what? Go back to the eating style
that made you overweight in the first place?
* Diets that overly restrict favorite foods. Rigid rules that
strictly limit your access to the usual temptations –
cake, cookies, chocolate – set up cycles of guilt and
gorging, despite all those “guilt-free” pleasures
– diet-branded cakes, pies and frozen desserts –
at the supermarket. You do need to limit sweets and junk foods
to control your weight. But successful diets can make room
for some treats.
When thinking about eating for health, it’s important
to understand the difference between “dieting”
and “diets.”
Dieting for many people implies a starting point and a finish
line. It’s often a temporary a change with the goal
of losing weight.
We go into these diets with a short-timer’s attitude.
Cabbage soup sounds appealing because it holds out the promise
of accelerating a solution. Most people have no intention
to eat that way beyond the time it takes to shed some pounds,
so they don’t mind committing to a monotonous diet for
several weeks or months.
But most people don’t give much thought to beyond the
end of the dieting. Some may hope that once they lose weight,
they’ll be able to keep it off by simply eating less.
It’s possible that may work.
What’s more likely is that once the diet ends, you’ll
fall back into your old eating patterns. You’ll gain
back the weight you lost, and often more. That’s “dieting”
– temporarily cutting back for a temporary weight loss.
“Diet” is a different concept.
The amount and variety of foods you eat on a routine basis
are your diet. We all eat a diet – good or bad –
but a successful diet should be a source of pleasure and support
good health and a healthy weight at the same time.
In contrast to dieting, a healthful diet is a long-term effort.
It’s one part of an ongoing way of life that ideally
incorporates not only the right foods in the right amounts,
but other factors that support health. Those include physical
activity, a supportive environment – walking trails,
community parks, access to fresh foods and regular family
meals, for example – and effective ways to handle stress.
It’s not an impossible goal. It’s one that most
of us can reach by taking deliberate, incremental steps.
This year, work to make improvements to your diet that you
can embrace for life. And stop dieting.
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