Losing the Battle to Lose Weight

Americans have become obsessed with dieting in recent years, so it should be no surprise that quick-fix weight loss programs and advertisements are everywhere you look these days. They claim to produce nearly effortless weight loss and instant health benefits. While losing weight will improve the health of an overweight dieter, these fad diets very often yield more health complications and conditions than they cure. Many are yo-yo diets where you put the pounds back on as soon as you discontinue the program, some severely restrict caloric intake and essential nutrients, and still others profess the superiority of one specific food group or item with little or no proof to support their claim.

Identifying fad diets is not as nearly as difficult as it might appear. Dieters must watch for programs that completely or severely restrict or advocate one food group or item, and should always doubt any alleged scientific claims that have no verifiable evidence to back them. Promises of rapid weight loss are unmistakable warning signs of a diet program that will also rapidly result in a return to pre-diet weight, and dieters should be suspicious of methods that seem to rely on suspect "chemical reactions" to trigger weight loss or raise the metabolism.

Most fad diets are not nutritionally balanced, and many of them have one obvious and significant flaw. They instruct the dieter to only eat one particular type of food, which deprives the body of many important vitamins and minerals that are vital to overall health. These dieting programs often produce rapid weight loss, generally water weight, but the pounds rarely stay off long-term. Banning specific foods very often results in more cravings, and subsequent binges, producing weight gain instead of loss. There are no good or bad foods to concentrate on or avoid - only good and bad eating habits. Dieting should be about replacing those unhealthy eating habits with beneficial ones so that you not only lose weight, but keep it off even after the diet has ended.

Improper nutrition, a common side effect of many fad diets, can result in a potential loss of muscle density. A 3 to 6 percent loss of muscle can occur along with any fat lost. If the weight is regained, muscle is then replaced by more fat, resulting in a decrease in overall muscle protein. The less muscle an individual has, the fewer the calories that are needed to maintain it. This means that over time you will be able to eat less and less without gaining even more weight.

What about the high protein/low carb diets? These diets are supported by very little scientific evidence and actually result in greater water weight loss than fat loss. Experts warn that a diet high in animal protein is loaded with cholesterol and saturated fat and puts people at an increased risk for heart disease. A diet too high in protein can also lead to enlarged kidneys and renal failure. High protein diets are also so low in carbohydrates that the body goes into ketosis (burning muscle for energy), which reduces hunger, but is neither safe nor healthy.

Many of the fad diets popular right now cause a loss of water weight and result in dehydration, which puts strain on the body's systems in addition to making the dieter feel weak. Lack of carbohydrates means less energy, which in turn often means less activity. And less activity leads to weight gain instead of loss - starting the cycle all over again.

Stable weight loss is a challenging goal to achieve. Approximately 95 percent of dieters regain most or all of the weight they have lost, many finding themselves even heavier than they were when they started. The USDA has concluded that the solution to long-term compliance and weight loss is focusing on the psychological issues and obstacles involved with dieting and eating habits in general. Alterations in eating habits must be made deliberately and gradually if the individual can be expected to stick with those changes when the diet is concluded.