If your goal is a permanent fat loss, dieting is unlikely to get you there. Here’s why.
If you are trying to lose any type of weight for any length of time, then you can do that on Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers or any of the other high-profile money makers out there. You can lose weight by cutting off your arm, too but that won’t make you look any better. *
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The Fat vs Weight Differential
Until you learn to distinguish between weight loss and fat loss, you will be spinning your wheels. You will be obsessed with the media-driven obsession with getting your scale weight down whatever the cost. And that is the biggest error that the diet industry perpetuates. For over a century they have sold us on the lie that your diminishing weight on the scale is your sure sign of success. Just think of shows like The Biggest Loser. Nothing else matters but getting that scale down.
But, just putting aside the fat versus weight issue for a moment, studies have repeatedly shown that even permanent weight loss (regardless of what type of weight) is virtually impossible on a diet. One study, conducted by the American Society for Clinical Nutrition in 2001, followed sixty obese women over the period of 12 months on a restricted calorie weight loss diet. Although they did lose weight initially (in the range of 9-17 pounds in the first 8 weeks), none of the women managed to keep it off and 21 of them ended up heavier than when they started the diet. After two years, 83 percent of the women ended up gaining more weight than they had lost during the diet period.**
You’d think that having been in business for so long, the leading weight loss diet companies like Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, and Nutrisystem would have collected a wealth of information on the ability of their clients to keep the weight off over the long haul. Yet none of them keep that vital statistic. Keeping the weight off is the NUMBER ONE measure of success, yet not one company keeps a record of it. The reason . . .
If they did, no one would use their product.
Why Diet’s Don’t Work
So, the evidence is in . . . diets don’t work.
But why not?
Why, in fact, do most people end up fatter than before they even went on the diet?
A big reason is what the scientific community calls the starvation response. When you go on a calorie-restricted diet, your body feels as if it is about to starve to death. Of course, you have the option of eating more food, it’s just that you are choosing not to. Your brain knows that – but the rest of your body doesn’t. It thinks that you are in an emergency situation.
As a result of your body’s perception of danger, it kicks into survival mode. Perceiving that calories are going to be severely restricted for an extended period of time, hormonal changes take place that allows you to hoard as much fuel as you can from the reduced amount of food that you are eating. In other words, you cling onto more fat for stored fuel to see you through the lean times. It’s the same thing that bears do to carry them through the hibernation period.
The bottom line … Diets Don’t Work.
Instead adopt a sensible, clean eating plan that you can stick to for the rest of your life. It’s the smart way to reach your fat loss goal not only safely but permanently.
* Fitness Disclaimer
This website offers health, fitness and nutritional information and is designed for educational purposes only. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for, nor does it replace, professional medical advice, diagnosis treatment.
** This website does not promise any specific results, as each individual responds differently to training. The author of this article is not a medical professional. We have volunteers in our organization from different aspects of health, nutrition, and fitness. Not just modern medicine doctors and physicians, but yoga teachers, spiritual teachers, martial arts teachers, and energy healers and we use all those resources to be able to provide the best and most proper advice to people around all walks of life. We do not have a defined goal, we only have a mission to help as many people as we can.
Sources
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/74/5/579.long
