All Diets Work, That's the Problem!

By Jen Brewer

The whole process of going 'on' a diet automatically signifies that one will go 'off' the diet, which will result in regaining the weight, and even greater problems in the future.

The goal of All Diets Work is to:

1) help readers debunk the claims of fad diets

2) learn the core principles of weight loss

3) formulate their own personal tool kit to see lasting healthy results

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Apr 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9780983514015

Book preview

you.

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO:

My Mom: Whom I still call for help in the kitchen.

My Dad: Who stayed up way too late way too many nights helping me hone countless writing assignments throughout my schooling years.

My Husband: Who helped encourage me to write by telling his colleagues, patients, and everyone he knows that I had a book coming out — before one word was ever put to paper.

My Children: Who inspire me everyday … and provide brutally honest opinions on my cooking endeavors — the good, the bad, and the downright inedible.

SECTION 1

THE DIET DILEMMA

If you’re trying to lose weight, or even live healthier, there is no shortage of advice. Month after month, almost every magazine in the checkout line touts The new miracle diet or the breakthrough pill that will end your dieting woes! I especially love the ones that say Lose 20 Pounds by Christmas— in the December issue. In fact, google the word diet and you will be hit with over 330 million responses in .15 seconds. Good luck with that. Let’s face it. If you drop the calorie intake enough, any diet will work to take pounds off. If you stick with it. Forever.

"Of course you

lost weight on

the cabbage

diet; you got so

bored eating

only cabbage

that you just

stopped eating

altogether!"

   —Jay Leno

The Problem with Diets

I’ve been on a constant diet for the last two decades. I’ve lost a total of 789 pounds. By all accounts, I should be hanging from a charm bracelet.

—Erma Bombeck

The traditional use of the word diet has changed over the years. Originally the definition of diet was what a person or animal usually eats and drinks; daily fare¹ (as in, the Viking diet consisted of…). It referred to what a person ate consistently throughout his or her entire lifespan.

The word has evolved to mean a temporary change in eating habits. Our language reflects this change in word meaning: "I’m going on a diet. Although no one says it out loud, the rest of the sentence is implied: … so at some point, I will be going off a diet."

Fad diets are very powerful in our culture because they are started by companies that are after profits — not pounds. They have ONE goal: to make money. They often enlist false testimonials with paid actors claiming to have lost vast amounts of weight. As the novelty of a fad wears off, marketers start promoting a new one.

Be especially wary of any diet that requires you to buy (and keep on buying) the powder, pill, potion, or packet. It will not work for you in the long run.

I could fill this whole book dissecting specific diets, but I won’t because:

1. That would take the rest of the book.

2. By the time this book hits the press, the list would already be obsolete, as more and more diets hit the stands daily.

Chances are, the celery-and-peanut-butter diet that helped your neighbor lose 50 pounds, would be horrible for you. And in fact it will be horrible for your neighbor, if he cannot stay on the program long-term. There is no one size fits all approach to a healthy lifestyle.

Despite this overabundance of solutions, however, the obesity rate continues to grow. From 1990 to 2006, the average obesity rate skyrocketed from under 15% of the population in most states to over 20% in all states. That means one in every five people is obese. Two states even reported obesity rates of over 30%. That’s one out of every three people! In the three subsequent years, eight more states went over 30%. Epidemic? Absolutely.²-⁶

Obesity consumes vast amounts of time, energy, and resources and leaves immeasurable personal devastation in its wake. In February 2010, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimated direct and indirect health costs due to obesity at $147 billion. In 2006, each obese patient spent an average of $1,429 more on health care than his or her regular-weight counterparts.⁷ Many diseases have been shown to be directly or indirectly linked to obesity, including heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, stroke, respiratory diseases (sleep apnea, asthma), osteoarthritis, gynecological and pregnancy complications, and cancer, just to name a few.⁸,⁹

Obesity also has psychosocial implications. Although larger body sizes have been associated with affluence throughout history, in our modern-day society, having a body mass index in the obese range leads to social stigmas. Obesity also has been shown to have some link to fewer years of education, lower levels of income, and lower rates of marriage.¹⁰

Your Lifetime Eating Program

My advice: stop dieting. Start eating. Start eating in a way that helps your body become the healthy, strong body that you want. Create your own personalized eating program. You can include in this program the foods that you love (in moderation). The only way to control your weight for the rest of your life, is to get on an eating program for the rest of your life. If you love triple-fudge chocolate cake, then include that in your eating program — just not every day. The best way to know if an eating program will work for you is to ask yourself, How long can I do this? As much as we crave a quick and easy fix, permanent weight control can only be achieved with a permanent change in nutrition and behavior.

Research backs this up. A study performed by Harvard physicians followed people for two years on various diets — all focused on different nutrients (high-fat, low-fat, high-protein, low-carbohydrate, etc.), but with similar overall calories. At the end of two years, people in every group who completed the program (those who stuck with it and didn’t give up) lost weight.¹¹ Yes, any sound diet works. If you stay with it. Forever.

With the right eating program, after a slip, a binge, or vacation eating, you can resume the program quickly, without a lot of damage, emotional pressure, or negative self-talk. This individualized program will likely only produce a weekly weight loss of one or two pounds per week. However, the goal is not to drop weight quickly — the goal is to maintain the weight loss for years to come.

Unfortunately, with yo-yo dieting (going on and off diets), after the diet is discarded, the weight comes back quickly. Often, the dieter gains back even more weight and becomes heavier then before the diet began.¹²-¹⁴ Some research has even shown that yo-yo dieting can also impair the immune system, cause slightly elevated blood pressure, and lower the levels of HDL (the good cholesterol).¹⁵

I have gained and lost the same ten pounds so many times over and over again my cellulite must have déjà vu.      —Jane Wagner

If you can find an eating program that you can maintain indefinitely, you can manage your weight effectively — for the rest of your life. That is the point of this book — to help you find an eating program that works for you, individually.

No doubt you have talked to friends and relatives who have found their miracle weight-loss program and think it will work for everyone. This book will not give the magic pill to the wonderful world of weight loss. This book is meant to be used as your personal nutrition toolbox to create your lifelong plan to a healthier you. Not your uncle’s or neighbor’s or friend’s plan — your plan.

Motivation

In order to change we must be sick and tired of being sick and tired.

—Author Unknown

Motivation to build a healthy body is two fold. First, you must come to a point at which your desire to change outweighs your desire to remain heavy and unhealthy. All of the information in the world is not going to do you a bit of good if you are not ready to