The battle to lose weight – some win it and some lose it. Yet, the ?battle? has triggered a movement of sorts with a full-fledged industry revolving around it – doctors, nutritionists, dieticians, fitness experts, weight loss products, health books, health food? the list is long. And the battle can even spell doom for brands.
The low-carbohydrate Atkins diet led Interstate Bakeries Corp, the largest bakery company in the US, file for bankruptcy in 2004, reporting a debt of $1.320 bn. Another casualty of changing American diet that cut demand for carbohydrate-rich foods was Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. It registered its first loss as a public company after closing its Montana Mills business as doughnut sales declined. Even though Atkins? popularity graph declined after doctors reported in The Lancet that the diet wasn’t safe and shouldn?t be recommended for weight loss, globally food makers continue to vie for a share in the diet food market. Heard of Sensa ? the granules you sprinkle over food to enhance its smell and taste so that you feel full faster? Or Le Whif ? the lipstick-size inhaler filled with chocolate particles with less than a single calorie! That?s the latest way to diet. Smell and breathe food. And lose weight.
But even as niche innovations make their entry into the field of diets, the world has continued to eat to lose weight in an effort to lose inches and kilos ? moving from Atkins, General Motors, Glycemic-index diets, Mediterranean, Fruitarian, etc. Reason enough for diets to be so popular with researchers? Well, yes. A study recently published by the US? National Bureau of Economic Research found financial incentives to have very little impact on weight loss. Another study published in The New England Journal of Medicine compared four popular diets and found all of them to produce similar results. However, the dieters who attended more counselling sessions lost relatively more than the rest, highlighting the crucial role motivation plays in achieving diet success.
?Diets are useless,? says Dr Shikha Sharma, MD, Nutri Health Systems. Surprised? Don?t blame yourself. After all that?s a statement coming from a doctor who is running seven wellness centers across India and even a nutrition call centre. 20,000 people enrol in her centres each year to seek professional help to make the weighing scale budge to the left. The number of people who have successfully lost weight and promptly gained it back would agree with Dr Sharma. ?Most people who come to my centers have just two questions to ask: how quickly will I lose weight and what will it cost me. There is no third question. That?s where the problem lies. Healthy living has to be adopted as a lifestyle,? she says.
Jyoti Arora readily agrees. ?People just login the internet, find a diet and follow it blindly,? she says. Possibly why South Beach and GM diets are still popular in India. ?Especially GM ? it?s like the perfect crash course to weight loss. They don?t realise that different things work for different people,? adds Arora who leads the Nutrition & Dietetics department at Artemis Health Institute in Gurgaon. She recommends ?low cal-balanced diet. Just cutting 500 calories from your diet each day can help you lose upto half kg each week.? The hospital is also going to launch a ?Weight is Over? club that will offer a monthly meet with specialists providing guidance on losing weight.
There are other success mantras as well. ?Diets fail when they are considered to be a short-term compromise rather than integrated as a regular food pattern,? says Principal Dietician, Shashi Mathur of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi. He further asserts that to trust dieting to help you reduce weight is a gross mistake. ?You must either resort to a balanced low calorie diet or try burning the calories you consume,? he says.
Sharon Arora who runs the obesity clinic at G M Modi hospital in Delhi says the number of patients coming to her has increased by 60% recently. ?Most of them either eat very little or skip a lot of things ? right from fats to carbs. One must understand that the body needs proteins, vitamins, carbohydrates, minerals… each of them have a crucial role to play in the body. Depriving your body is just not the right way to go about things.? The bottomline? A balanced diet will do the wonders for you.
?Most diets are impossible to keep because they always advocate something extreme. Besides being difficult to maintain, they?re harmful for you physically and mentally,? asserts Rujuta Diwekar in her recentbook Don?t Lose Your Mind, Lose Your Weight.
A dietician and a fitness trainer, Diwekar reasons ?never, ever ?just try? diets that your over-enthu friends, clients etc swear by… When it comes to diets, it?s not one size fits all. Diets needs to be personalised and customised to your needs, fitness levels, exercise frequency, profession, climate, and your tastes in food.? Very logical, indeed. So, if you too have a battle to fight, fight it with the right strategy.
Does the plan fit your needs?
How do you know if a weight-loss plan fits your needs and lifestyle? Ask yourself these questions. Does the programme:
•Include various foods from the major food groups: fruits, vegetables, grains (particularly whole grains), low-fat dairy products, lean protein sources (meat, poultry, fish, beans and other legumes), nuts and seeds?
•Include foods you like and that you would enjoy eating for a lifetime ? not just for several weeks or months?
•Feature foods you can easily find in your local grocery store?
•Allow you to eat your favorite foods, or better yet, all foods?
•Fit your lifestyle and budget?
•Include proper amounts of nutrients and calories to help you lose weight safely and effectively?
•Encourage regular physical activity?
If you answer no to any of these questions, the weight-loss program isn’t right for you, as you probably won’t stay with it. Successful weight loss requires permanent changes to your eating and physical activity habits. This means you need to find a weight-loss strategy that you can embrace for life.
Diet hype
Medical News Today lists the following amongst the most popular diets of all time.
Atkins
Created by American cardiologist Dr Robert Atkins, the diet focuses on controlling the levels of insulin in our bodies through diet. If we consume large amounts of refined carbohydrates our insulin levels will rise rapidly, and then fall rapidly. Rising insulin levels trigger our bodies to store as much energy we eat as possible ? it will also make it less likely that our bodies use stored fat as a source of energy.
The Zone
It aims for a nutritional balance of 40% carbohydrates, 30% fats, and 30% protein each time we eat. It encourages consumption of unrefined carbohydrates, and fats, such as olive oil, avocado, and nuts. The focus is on controlling insulin levels.
South Beach
Started by cardiologist, Dr Agatston, and nutritionist, Marie Almon, it focuses on the control of insulin levels, and the benefits of unrefined slow carbohydrates versus fast carbs.
Mediterranean
It focuses on the nutritional habits of the people of Crete, Greece, and southern Italy. 25% to 35% of the Mediterranean diet consists of fat, with saturated fats not exceeding 8% of calorie intake.