Why Restricting Calories Never Works for Weight Loss

As the dust and cookie crumbs from festivities during the holidays began to settle, many people made resolutions to take better care of their health, and maybe shed some weight. By now, some are still carrying on with those good intentions. Others have gotten a little off-track, and are hoping to renew their healthy intentions. Either way, here's some encouragement and information.

You've got lots of company if you are presently dieting or preparing to start. At any point in time, there are nearly 60 million US residents on a weight loss program. Given a population of around 300 million, one out of five of the people you meet today are likely to be in the midst of dieting, whether it's necessary for them or not. Data from previous years indicate that during the course of this year, at least half of the population will go on a diet, meaning that half of the people you meet today are probably going to try to lose weight some time in 2005. Since three out of four women think they need to lose weight, a greater number of those dieters will be female.

A simple fact, commonly known and frequently ignored, is that some diet products don't work and some actually keep you from losing weight. Buyer beware. Understanding a few key concepts would help many people avoid the mistake of starting a diet plan that is doomed to failure. Often, it is not the dieter who fails, but rather the flawed premise of the diet plan that ends up failing to work for the dieter. It is heartbreaking to know that someone who is giving their best effort, and suffering discomfort, unnecessary hunger, and emotional pain during the process of dieting has a 98% chance of regaining all the weight they lost, plus a few pounds more. The most important thing for anyone contemplating a diet to understand is this one: Dozens of studies have shown conclusively that 'traditional' dieting - restricting caloric intake - does not work.

Here's the nutshell reason why just restricting calories cannot result in permanent weight loss. In the face of a radical reduction of food intake, our miraculous bodies have evolved to conserve energy, create more fat, slow down metabolism, and engage in all kinds of survival mechanisms to keep us from starving. Yet people continue to make the mistake of cutting back on food instead of changing the types of food they eat. And in the process of restricting calories, people inadvertently trigger the "Starvation Response," a combination of physiological processes for survival that guarantee that when the diet is over, all the lost weight will be regained. Our bodies are programmed for survival, not to fit into a smaller size blue jean.

We fall for diet programs that defy common sense because there is so much conflicting information, so much powerful marketing competing for our dollars, and so much, well, desperation. We want something quick, easy, effective - benefits that are promised to us by many diet products and plans. However, low-calorie is over. Low-fat is history. High protein is on the wane. And low-carb is on its way out.

What really works? Eating the foods our bodies evolved to eat, in proper proportions in proper combinations. It's not tricky, but it's not brainless either. Look in a good bookstore for books about combining foods, and check to see what kind of research studies are used to support the writing before buying. One book, a quick read that clearly explains the right foods and combinations for humans to eat is "The Good Calorie Diet" by Dr. Phillip Lipetz. The book was written in 1994, but the principles of which foods we should eat in what combination are as old as humankind, and the research studies on which the book is based are sound.

The book is a quick read (90 pages to lay out the facts and plan and then some appendices), and it is easy to understand. The basics boil down to a few principles that anyone can readily apply. I'll give two here as examples so you can get started on the path to changing your eating habits for permanent and real weight loss. First, eat whole food, rather than processed (avoid foods that come in a box, a can, or a package). Second, never combine animal protein with fruit or with starchy carbohydrates such as bread, potatoes, pasta, rice. These two habits are in line with the way our ancestors ate. They thrived on such a diet, and so can you.

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Nutrition specialist Grace M. Navarro is a contributing author to News about Diets the favorite resource letter about diets. Visit http://www.ezediets.com/ for additional articles by Grace.



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