Fahmida Hashem :
There’s nothing magical about your diet. Some people emphasize exercise more than others some follow low-carb diets, and some follow low-fat diets. The one commonality is that they had to make changes in their everyday behaviors. HEALTHY eating plans are not easy to follow, as often the mind just won’t play along, leaving dieters feeling hungry, miserable and no closer to their weight loss goals. Scientists are showing that the key to weight loss appears to be highly personalized rather than trendy diets.
First reason why diets don’t work is because they are not sustainable for the long term. If you can’t see yourself following your current meal plan for the rest of your life, throw it out the window and brainstorm some healthy eating changes you could actually stick to for years to come. The weight loss is bound to happen more slowly that it will on a crash diet, but it’ll be longer lasting.
To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you’re taking in each day. When you cut your caloric intake too low, your body dramatically slows its metabolic rate and begins to hold onto any sugar and fat it can, rather than burn it.
The result: a lot of hunger and budge. You’re Not Exercising-weight loss is 80 percent diet and 20 percent exercise, but if you’re only dieting, the sad fact is that your metabolism is slowing.
You’ve gone no-carb or fat-free. Cutting back markedly on any one food group-say, carbs or fat can leave you short on the nutrients you need to stay energized: After all, the biggest reason low-carb diets backfire is that, for the vast majority of people, they aren’t sustainable over the long haul. And as with all diets, once you quit, you regain the weight you lost and (often) more. These fluctuations can make it an even bigger challenge to lose weight next time.
Body weight tends to fluctuate by a few pounds. It depends on the foods you are eating, and hormones can also have a major effect on how much water your body holds on to (especially in women). Also, it is possible to gain muscle at the same time as you lose fat. This is particularly common if you just recently started exercising.
Protein is the single most important nutrient for losing weight-Eating protein at 25 to 30 per centof calories can boost metabolism by 80 to 100 calories per day and make you automatically eat several hundred fewer calories per day.
It can also drastically reduce cravings and desire for snacking. A high protein intake also helps prevent metabolic slowdown, a common side effect of losing weight. It also helps to prevent weight regain.
Binge eating is a common side effect of dieting. It involves rapidly eating large amounts of food, often much more than your body needs.This is a pretty big problem for many dieters. Even if something is healthy, the calories still count. Depending on the volume, just a single binge can often ruin an entire week’s worth of dieting.
Sugary beverages are the most fattening items in the food supply. This isn’t only true of sugary drinks like Coke and Pepsi; it also applies to ‘healthier’ beverages like fruit juices are problematic, and should not be consumed in large amounts. A single glass can contain a similar amount of sugar as several pieces of whole fruit!
A technique called mindful eating may be one of the world’s most powerful weight loss tools. It involves slowing down, eating without distraction, savoring and enjoying each bite, while listening for the natural signals that tell your brain when it has had enough. Too focused on ‘Dieting’ – ‘Diets’ almost never work in the long term. Instead of approaching this from a dieting mindset, make it your primary goal to become a happier, healthier and fitter person. Focus on nourishing your body instead of depriving it, and let weight loss follow as a natural side effect.
If you’ve tried and failed to lose weight before, you may believe that diets don’t work for you. You’re probably right, some diets don’t work at all and none of them work for everyone-our bodies often respond differently to different foods. But while there’s no easy fix to losing weight, there are plenty of steps you can take to develop a healthier relationship with food, curb emotional triggers to overeating, and achieve lasting weight-loss success.
Before we get into the technicalities, you should know that weight loss isn’t always a linear process. That is, you don’t always lose weight in a consistent, predictable way. You may lose a pound one week, lose nothing over the next two weeks, suddenly lose three pounds the following week, gain a pound back, lose it a few days later, and so forth.
There’s nothing magical about your diet. Some people emphasize exercise more than others some follow low-carb diets, and some follow low-fat diets. The one commonality is that they had to make changes in their everyday behaviors. HEALTHY eating plans are not easy to follow, as often the mind just won’t play along, leaving dieters feeling hungry, miserable and no closer to their weight loss goals. Scientists are showing that the key to weight loss appears to be highly personalized rather than trendy diets.
First reason why diets don’t work is because they are not sustainable for the long term. If you can’t see yourself following your current meal plan for the rest of your life, throw it out the window and brainstorm some healthy eating changes you could actually stick to for years to come. The weight loss is bound to happen more slowly that it will on a crash diet, but it’ll be longer lasting.
To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you’re taking in each day. When you cut your caloric intake too low, your body dramatically slows its metabolic rate and begins to hold onto any sugar and fat it can, rather than burn it.
The result: a lot of hunger and budge. You’re Not Exercising-weight loss is 80 percent diet and 20 percent exercise, but if you’re only dieting, the sad fact is that your metabolism is slowing.
You’ve gone no-carb or fat-free. Cutting back markedly on any one food group-say, carbs or fat can leave you short on the nutrients you need to stay energized: After all, the biggest reason low-carb diets backfire is that, for the vast majority of people, they aren’t sustainable over the long haul. And as with all diets, once you quit, you regain the weight you lost and (often) more. These fluctuations can make it an even bigger challenge to lose weight next time.
Body weight tends to fluctuate by a few pounds. It depends on the foods you are eating, and hormones can also have a major effect on how much water your body holds on to (especially in women). Also, it is possible to gain muscle at the same time as you lose fat. This is particularly common if you just recently started exercising.
Protein is the single most important nutrient for losing weight-Eating protein at 25 to 30 per centof calories can boost metabolism by 80 to 100 calories per day and make you automatically eat several hundred fewer calories per day.
It can also drastically reduce cravings and desire for snacking. A high protein intake also helps prevent metabolic slowdown, a common side effect of losing weight. It also helps to prevent weight regain.
Binge eating is a common side effect of dieting. It involves rapidly eating large amounts of food, often much more than your body needs.This is a pretty big problem for many dieters. Even if something is healthy, the calories still count. Depending on the volume, just a single binge can often ruin an entire week’s worth of dieting.
Sugary beverages are the most fattening items in the food supply. This isn’t only true of sugary drinks like Coke and Pepsi; it also applies to ‘healthier’ beverages like fruit juices are problematic, and should not be consumed in large amounts. A single glass can contain a similar amount of sugar as several pieces of whole fruit!
A technique called mindful eating may be one of the world’s most powerful weight loss tools. It involves slowing down, eating without distraction, savoring and enjoying each bite, while listening for the natural signals that tell your brain when it has had enough. Too focused on ‘Dieting’ – ‘Diets’ almost never work in the long term. Instead of approaching this from a dieting mindset, make it your primary goal to become a happier, healthier and fitter person. Focus on nourishing your body instead of depriving it, and let weight loss follow as a natural side effect.
If you’ve tried and failed to lose weight before, you may believe that diets don’t work for you. You’re probably right, some diets don’t work at all and none of them work for everyone-our bodies often respond differently to different foods. But while there’s no easy fix to losing weight, there are plenty of steps you can take to develop a healthier relationship with food, curb emotional triggers to overeating, and achieve lasting weight-loss success.
Before we get into the technicalities, you should know that weight loss isn’t always a linear process. That is, you don’t always lose weight in a consistent, predictable way. You may lose a pound one week, lose nothing over the next two weeks, suddenly lose three pounds the following week, gain a pound back, lose it a few days later, and so forth.
(Fahmida Hashem, Consulting Nutritionist, Miss
nutritionist-Center for nutrition & weight management)
