The Paleo. The Zone. The Gluten-free. Another day, another diet. We’re caught in a never-ending merry-go-round of weight loss plans, fueled by celebrity endorsers,
The Paleo. The Zone. The Gluten-free. Another day, another diet. We’re caught in a never-ending merry-go-round of weight loss plans, fueled by celebrity endorsers, TV doctors and companies angling for a piece of a $60 billion industry. But do these diets really work? And how healthy are they?
Registered Dietitian Lisa Tillinger Johansen examines dozens of the most wildly popular diets based on medical facts, not hype. And along the way, she reveals tried-and-true weight loss strategies, relying on her years of hospital experience, weight-loss seminars and community outreach efforts. With insight and humor, Stop The Diet, I Want To Get Off shows that the best answer is often not a trendy celebrity-endorsed diet, but easy-to-follow guidelines that are best for our health and our waistlines.
GUEST POST
The Art of the Yo-Yo
Yo-Yo dieting. It’s so prevalent and has been a part of many of our lives. Have you lost weight on a diet only to gain the pounds your shed, perhaps even more, down the road? And then you tried dieting again only to repeat the weight loss, weight gain cycle? Then welcome to the world of the yo-yo dieter.
Why does this happen? Why can’t we keep the weight off? It’s often because we go on some restrictive fad diet that we can adhere to for some period of time, but not for the long-term. Or perhaps we’ve gone on a meal delivery program that works for us until we stop it and move on to preparing our own meals. Typically, in all of these type of diets we don’t learn how to eat for life. Some of us are looking for quick weight loss which often isn’t sustainable.
No one wants to be a yo-yo dieter. It’s so frustrating and can be harmful to our health. Some studies suggest that it may affect blood pressure, cholesterol and gallbladder health among other things. And that’s important to know. But what can be a very prevalent side effect of yo-yo dieting has to do with our psyche.
It’s a bummer to lose weight and enjoy our new bodies, only to see it all fall away as we pack the pounds on. It can be discouraging and depressing. Some of us just might throw our hands up in the air and give up. Let’s not do that.
So what’s the answer here? It’s really just simple common sense. Fad diets don’t work long term. Let’s get that drilled into our heads. Let’s make a pact here that we’ll turn our backs to them and never look back. We’ll take a new road, the healthy eating path.
What do we do to lose weight and keep it off? Here are some tips. Don’t skip meals, eat balanced meals with half the plate non-starchy veggies, one-quarter of the plate starch (preferably of the whole grain variety) and the other quarter of the plate lean protein. Prepare your food in a healthy manner, monitor portion sizes and don’t drink your calories. And add exercise into your daily routine. For weight loss, aim for sixty minutes of physical activity most days of the week. This can be done in ten-minute increments. Cutting five hundred calories a day through diet and exercise should result in one-pound weight loss per week. Reducing daily intake by one thousand calories a day should result in a two-pound weight loss per week. But don’t go below 1,200 calories without medical supervision. We need about that amount for our bodies just to go. And I do recommend speaking with your healthcare provider regarding your diet and before embarking on an exercise program.
Remember slow and steady wins the race here. Healthy balanced diets get the gold star. It’s our ticket to helping avoid admittance into the yo-yo dieting club. Let’s grab it and go.
About the author:
LISA TILLINGER JOHANSEN, MS, RD is a Registered Dietitian who counsels clients on a wide range of health issues. Her debut nutrition book, Fast Food Vindication, received the Discovery Award (sponsored by USA Today,Kirkus and The Huffington Post). She lives in Southern California.
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Sounds like a very helpful book. I'd love to know which ones actually work.
ReplyDeleteThis book has a great title and cover! I like the description that is given.
ReplyDeletethanks for competition
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