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November 23, 2009

Get the "Skinny" on Fad Diets

Written by Peggy Randall and Roxanne Holthaus, Nurse Practitioners

There are literally hundreds of different diets that have at one time or another been promoted as the best approach to losing weight. Unfortunately, most of them, in their efforts to succeed, involve omitting certain foods, and sometimes even entire food groups.

Fad diets take form in many ways: low-fat, low carbohydrates, high protein or focusing on one particular item such as grapefruit. These diets lack major nutrients such as dietary fiber and carbohydrates, as well as selected vitamins, minerals, and protective phytochemicals, such as antioxidants (substances found in vegetables which are protective against disease). Over the long term, by not receiving the proper amounts of these nutrients, you can possibly develop serious health problems later in life.

While the latest fad in diet books slams carbohydrates in praise of protein, there is no scientific evidence to support these claims. Rather, studies repeatedly show that more Americans are overweight today because they eat too many calories and too much fat and exercise too little – carbohydrates are not to blame. When you lose weight on high-protein or low-carbohydrate fad diets, it’s because you limited your food intake, which means you cut calories. Most fad diets – from Sugar Busters to The Zone – supply about 1200 calories a day or less. That said, you would lose weight on any diet when you eat so few calories.

Without carbohydrates, the diets often create a condition called ketosis, which serves to curb your appetite. This effect, however, doesn’t last forever. Over time, you will begin to feel fatigued, run out of energy, get headaches, lose the ability to exercise – in short, the initial euphoria, the positive energy, fades. Unless future studies uncover some hidden dark side to carbohydrates (something close to a miracle), these foods will remain some of the best foods in your diet, as long as they are minimally processed and accompanied by low-fat choices.

Experience shows that while the diets all caused initial weight loss, the Atkins and South Beach diets mostly caused water weight loss and the Zone, Protein Power and Sugar Busters diets caused weight loss via calorie restriction. One huge problem with all of these is that the rigidity of the diets and limited food choices make them impractical and expensive in the long term, especially for college students, eating on campus with a limited budget. Bottom line: high protein diets aren’t a good way to lose weight. Almost everyone who initially loses weight on these diets can’t keep the weight off.

Why is this, you ask? First, it’s because these diets all have one thing in common: they offer only a temporary solution to what, for many people, is a lifelong problem. Once the diet is stopped, the lost weight is usually regained quickly. This is because none of these diets teach you how to eat right. Second, few programs mention the fact that once you go on a diet, your metabolism immediately starts to slow down. The only way to reverse that trend is to exercise – specifically, to perform strength and resistance moves. Weight loss is not about carbs – it’s about calories.. Knowing how many calories you’re taking in, and how many you’re putting out, is the timelessly fashionable key to attaining a healthy weight.