Weight loss commercials, infomercials and magazine ads proliferate. Newscasters and doctors shake their heads sadly and inform us that we, as a nation, or over weight. Do any of these diets, products and programs work?
The answer is yes and no. Some of the diets work, at least as long as you follow them. Some of them let you lose weight, but pack on the fat, cholesterol and sodium. Some of them take your money and don’t deliver. What are we supposed to do?
First, let me list a couple of diets. The grapefruit diet is the first one I remember. I was a kid, so it’s through a child’s eyes. I saw adults looking for grapefruits, in winter, in West Virginia. Believe me, that winter, in the late 1970s, there were a lot of frustrated adults, and not many of them lost any weight. They did lose a lot of money.
Diet fads have come and gone since then, but one that seems to be here to stay are the various low carb diets. One reason is the illusion that they work and are healthy. Why? Most people do lose at least some weight on them.
As I’ve mentioned, the low carb diets are usually high in fat, cholesterol and sodium. Aside from the increased risk of heart disease, many people on these diets develop gout. Gout is a form of arthritis caused by excess uric acid being dumped in crystalline form into the joints. Uric acid is made by purines. Meat, dairy products and some vegetables are high in purines…and guess what is the featured foods found in low carb diets?
Surgery is another weight loss option. Liposuction, gastric bypass and lap band surgery are all designed to help lose weight, one way or another. With liposuction, the fat is sort of vacuumed out of certain areas. It doesn’t really help make you healthier.
Gastric bypass and lap band surgery are designed to help you eat less. They are good tools under the right circumstances, but it would be best not to get to the point where you need them. These could lead to long term weight loss.
Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers and other such programs are also good, but like lap band and gastric bypass, they need something important to make you healthy. They need you to learn that a diet isn’t a one time thing you do to "get healthy." It’s a whole new way of looking at food and exercise.
You might think I’m writing this without knowing what it’s like, but you’re wrong. I’m in the trenches with you, and I’ve had to learn this the hard way.
Your best tool in any weight loss program is education. When I first decided to lose weight, the information I found opened my eyes to a lot of things. One of them is that advertisements for food could be killing us. Let me explain.
When I watch tv, every other add is for some sort of processed food. It could be frozen entrees or it could be fast food. Frequently it’s pizza, though the one that gets me the best are those for hamburgers. Do you know how much fat, cholesterol sodium…and calories…are in these foods? It’s staggering.
One fast food combo meal could use up all your calories for in entire day…without being super sized. They use up two days worth of a healthy person’s sodium intake. Depending on your height, weight and overall health, you could find yourself using up more than one day’s worth of fat, and nearly an entire day’s worth of a healthy person’s cholesterol.
What I did was to look at every thing I consumed in a day. I kept a food diary…and as soon as I started having to write down what I ate, any grazing I did went from cookies and chips to fresh fruits and veggies.
Then, I looked at the calories I burned in a day. As a writer as well as a Master Herbalist, I’m pretty sedentary. That isn’t going to burn a lot of calories. So, I started walking and even progressed to a little hiking.
It boiled down to a sixty pound weight loss…without a lap band, without a weight loss supplement and without a gym membership. I did have a cheering section, which comes in handy. My husband and daughter were very proud of the effort I put in and the results.
I’m not skinny now, but I am a lot lighter. Armed with this information, you can set up your own program, without paying an arm, a leg or your life.
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