Why Dieting is a Problem.

There is constant stimuli to our brain by every magazine, social media, fitness experts and friends talking about dieting, supplements & losing weight. Every social gathering there will be someone who lost a lot of weight, and now you are curious what diet did he/she follow and you want to get on to that diet next day. Little do we know that our body doesn’t react the same; what worked for one doesn’t work for you. By now we all know what dieting is and we have become kind of expert in this, unfortunately, what we have become expert is in eating less. Is eating less dieting?  I wish losing weight was so simple

Anyone who believes that an obese person could become thin by merely following the lifestyle of a thin person is ignoring the power of the energy balance system or ” weight thermostat ” centred in the hypothalamus – Sandra Aamodt, a neuroscientist .quote from the book ” why Diet Make Us Fat.”

Is dieting a cure to the problem, or is it a  problem by itself?. Give me your five mins to clear this confusion.

What is Dieting??

Dieting is managing the consumption of food to lose or gain weight or to treat/control any medical conditions.

Most people associate dieting with loosing weight.

There are so many different kinds of Diets:  Atkins diet, vegan diet, keto diet, low carb, warrior diet, paleo diet, zone diet, blood group diet, intermittent fasting, low fat and many more. We can spend a day writing the names of a different kind of diets. What diet should you be following? Here comes one more Dilemma (Don’t hate me, please be with me, four more mins to go)  

In today’s world, being fit means thin and looking good in clothes, doesn’t matter at what cost does it come. Social acceptance is the key. We all want to be part of a society and socially accepted for which we all abide by the social rules. The pressure of losing weight or wanting to look good in small size clothes is driving this society mad. People of all age are a victim of this. Kids lose their self-confidence for being overweight or Get bullied by other kid who is fit. Parents putting pressure on the kids to go diet to lose weight to look fit ( I don’t remember our parents running after us for this reason).

I am not saying parents should not guide their kids, or there is anything wrong in looking thin, but diet is not the right approach. Also looking thin at the cost of having no energy and strength, how productive is this. Why is obesity rate increasing while we hear everyone are on a diet. If you follow studies, it shows 80% of people regain their weight in the first & second year & 95% by the third year. This doesn’t make sense if he had lost weight how did he pile all the weight back. If Dieting was easy, why are people not able to sustain it for the long run, Does this ring a bell?. If you can’t see yourself following the eating pattern for a year or so, then you got the wrong plan.

This is the last thing you could do to yourself, doing everything right for the wrong plan.

Our body is a smart machine. The human body realises that less food is coming in, it sets the body in defence mechanic by getting smart in storing the food and becomes efficient in spending the energy, making it difficult to lose weight and easy to regain the weight.

“Whenever your weight changes too much, your brain will intervene to push it back to what it thinks is the correct weight for you. And you might not prefer the same weight your brain prefers. Many of us don’t,” This is at the heart of why diets don’t work, says Sandra Aamodt, PhD, (appropriately) the author of Why Diets Make Us Fat

Have you ever wondered why you have so much craving when you are on a diet?. Brain realises the calorie deficit and set the body on starvation mode, which means it will up your hunger hormone making your craving touch the roof. Being in a calorie deficit for a long time reduces our Basal Metabolic rate, making it easy for the body to store the excess calorie in fat cells. This is the same reason why most of the weight is gained back post-diet period.

Many women who lose weight in a short time have trouble getting their periods, remember our body is brilliant. Lectin will shut off the menstrual cycle thinking body is in starvation mode. Starvation mode doesn’t allow women to get her periods and avoids falling pregnant. Human Body says the woman is not ready to give birth.

Coming back to a different kind of diet, these diets conclude to one and only one thing that is CALORIE DEFICIT = weight/fat loss.

Let look at what happens when you go on a yo-yo diet to lose weight

• Metabolic adaption: the body will adapt to the calorie in, Slowing down your Basal Metabolic rate, making it difficult to lose weight.
• Low leptin & high ghrelin = always hungry.
• Low energy level
• low thyroid function
• Fast regain of weight post-diet.

we are not telling you to start eating fried or processed food and stop your dieting. we are talking about the approach consequences.

Diet is generally for the period of 4 weeks to 16 weeks, depending on the plan but a healthy lifestyle is forever.

lets looks at some lifestyle change which can be sustained for ever

• Stop buying and stocking processed food.
• Eat seasonal food.
• Fat is not your enemy, eat healthy fat.
• Get adequate sleep ( what is best for you )
• Teach kids what is healthy to eat instead of putting them on a diet.
• Control portion size.
• Exercise
• Focus on strength training.
• Eat more protein
• Add fibre to your diet.
• Track you macros (protein/carbs/fats )
• Take your vitamins
• To do what fits your lifestyle ( exercise & food )
• Healthy snack instead of any processed food snack. ( example yoghurt)
• keep some space in your plan for comfort food in a controlled manner ( how many times a week and portion size )
• if you have to attend any social event where you would be eating more or indulging in some high-calorie food, reduce your calorie intake from the other meals to accommodate the special meal.
• Have patience

Once you change your lifestyle and eating habit as mentioned above, you would already start seeing changes in your body.

If you want to lose some weight. You can start by increasing your exercise ( activity level ), if you train five hours a week, make it 7/8 hrs a week and increase exercise intensity (By increasing activity level, we increase our calorie expenditure)

Target minimal weight loss in a week. Have patience and give your self good enough time to lose the target weight.

I hope this has cleared all the confusion why I said diet is not a cure. The crux of the problem is our eating habit and lifestyle, which is temporarily controlled by dieting. Dieting Is temporary, and lifestyle is permanent.