About one-third of Americans are extremely over-weight, which may be why crashdieting is beginning to plague America. It’s estimated that Americans alonespend 80-100 billion dollars on weight loss tactics. People go on these diets toget quick results but are these results hurting them more than helping? Theanswer is Yes! The only way to safely and effectively lose weight is throughold-fashioned exercise and the right diet. You cannot successfully lose weightby simply cutting food from your diet or taking some pills, it is necessary towork for your results. Without depriving your body of necessary nutrientsthrough dieting, you can lose fat and get the body you’ve always dreamed of, orat least one you’re more comfortable with.
The quote “The effects of thecurrent obsession with dieting can be devastating”, said by Mr. Woodworth,a long time exercise and nutrition expert, summarizes the dangers of dieting. The many dangerous methods of losing weight: so called “dieting” orstarvation/fad diets, pills and drugs, over-exercising, surgery, and eatingdisorders, have taken many casualties. Many people go on “diets”, aword so commonly misused, to get quick results of weight loss. Perhaps the mostcommon is minor starvation and fad dieting. This method is when people becomeover concerned with calorie intake.
Many deaths have been associated with lowcalorie diets. By trying to shed pounds simply by cutting all fat from the dietgreatly increases the risk of getting cancer, heart disease, and other healthproblems. That “low-fat” trap gets people hooked on reduced-fat snacksor possibly not eating at all. So now the body is being deprived of necessarynutrients not available in any pill or liquid form. Yes cutting fat andcholesterol reduces the risk of heart disease and diabetes, but nutrient poordiets have an even larger risk of getting those diseases along with many others. Of course a large percent of dieters will lose weight but they will feeldepressed afterward and gain back even more than before they started the diet.
The reason why is because they are losing “healthy” weight along withthe fat they were hoping to rid of. In an infomercial with Tony Little, heshowed a graph of what the body loses when someone goes on a diet. By cuttingback on foods, the body becomes deprived of very important nutrients. Then whenit seems you are losing weight, what you are actually losing is fat AND MUSCLE. Many times, more lean muscle than fat will be lost. And although they may lookslimmer because their size is smaller, they are actually weaker and moresusceptible to injuries due to losing “healthy” weight.
Healthy weightis muscle and bone weight, the things that support your structure and enable youto perform rigorous activities. A lot of the time “healthy” weight ismisinterpreted, especially in females. Which leads to an amazing fact that 62%of women and 44% of men that are dieting aren’t even overweight! But they aremisled when they step on the bathroom scale and “My God” look what itsays! They are not realizing that muscle outweighs fat over 2:1. Therefor, manypeople may think they are fat even though they may be healthy.
I myself am anexample of that. On a height and age chart it says my ideal weight for my heightis 155 pounds. I am 168, so does that mean that I am overweight? Notnecessarily. Charts and stuff are made for averages and trends because whendoing a body fat testing I had only 10. 8% body fat which is below the averagefor people my age and size. So the bathroom scale scares many people intobelieving that they need to lose weight when it may not be necessary.
On top ofoverweight people dieting we also have healthy people dieting, both of which areextremely dangerous. Thus, the fad diet/starvation method should be completelyavoided because simple “dieting” is just a stepping stone that maylead to much more serious things that become life changing or life threatening. . What started as a simple “diet” may have progressed into anotherdangerous way of losing weight through pills or drugs and eating disorders.
Howwonderful it would be if we could all take a couple of pills a day and not worrywhat else we may eat all while obtaining that body we yearn for. Unfortunately,we don’t have that pill and probably never will so avoid the dangerousimitations out there. What is not told about these miracle pills that make youhave the body of your dreams is that they cause fatigue, hyperphagia, insomnia,mood changes, irritability and if really abused psychosis. While claiming toboost your metabolism, reduce fat, and suppress your appetite they may becomeaddicting and your body may eventually depend upon them.
Many of these pillscontain untested chemicals and slip by the FDA by claiming that they are foodsupplements not drugs. And while each year many deaths are due to these productsthey are still being used by seven percent of adolescent girls in the U. S. andthirty-four percent have at least tried them. Furthering the risk ofcomplications in life and leading many times to death along with dieting. Peoplewith eating disorders are believed to be the result from the 70 millionAmericans who diet each year, lose the weight, regain the weight, and then dietagain.
They, instead of going back to dieting once more, become anorexia nervosaor bulimia nervosa. Anorexia is when an individual is more than 15 percent underexpected weight, fears gaining weight, females have amenorrhea (males lose sexdrive) and abnormal eating habits. They simply restrict food because thepleasure in eating food is overwhelmed by guilt and anxiety. About 1 in every100 girls between 12-18 years of age are affected.
The complications of anorexiaare dehydration, gastrointestinal bleeding, chest pain, low heart rate, abnormaltemperature, bone growth retardation or osteoporosis, infertility, dry skin andhair, constipation, epileptic seizures, the list still goes on. An awful lotjust to lose some weight don’t you think? Many people who simply use the faddiet method get the urge to lose more weight and that is when they resort to thelife threatening disorder of anorexia. Approximately one-third of anorexicsbecome bulimia nervosa’s. These are people who binge eat then purge themselvesby vomiting.
They become isolated and depressed and have a low self-esteem. What’s worse though is that physically these people seem healthy but if you lookclose they develop finger calluses or lesions, puffy cheeks , and erosion ofenamel on their teeth due to the stomach acids so frequently eating away at it. It is in everyone’s best interest to avoid dieting and the other methods oflosing weight that come with it because there is a major difference betweendieting and having a healthy diet (food choice). To overcome these weightproblems and lead a healthier life you need look no further than a couple islesover from where you usually shop in the market and a little bit of good oldexercise. First off there is one important thing you must know abut trying tolose weight the correct way, it’s just like trying to become a millionaire, ittakes some work and some time. Losing weight the correct way will take longerthan a crash diet but it is a much safer method not to mention more permanent.
This may be the tricky part for most people, laying of the junk food. It is okto have junk food occasionally but making it an everyday thing will reallylengthen the weight loss process especially if you are older. The main entr?eneeds to be starchy foods. It has been said that breads are fatty but theycontain no more calories per gram than lean meat. These foods tends to expandonce in your stomach making you feel a little more full and giving you less ofan urge to eat and really stuff yourself. When you stuff yourself your stomachgrows just like when you exercise a muscle, the next time you will need morefood to satisfy it.
Avoid the breads made with lots of oil or butter and onesyou need to put spreads on for flavor. It is wise to include a variety of freshfruits and vegetables into your diet. Greener foods tend to help metabolism (thechemical that helps you break down food) better and are recommended. AlthoughMcDonalds has Americas favorite fries, you better avoid that and any other typeof fried potato including potato chips.
Even though they are vegetables theyhave been doused with fatty oils. Dairy products are necessary foods so opt forthe skim milk, nonfat yogurt, and low-fat cheese. You’ll acquire a taste forthem and appreciate it in the long run. Protein is another necessary food thatyou must watch carefully.
Trim all visible fat off before steaming, grilling,baking or poaching. Notice I did not say frying! Frying requires oil and oil isa main ingredient you want to avoid. Cutting down on fats is the best approachwhen you are attempting to make an appropriate diet. You do not want toeliminate all fats but minimizing them helps. Calories are too often worriedabout. It’s like saying, don’t fill up the car past ? of a tank because itmight not run as well.
Calories are energy and energy is necessary. Now thatdoesn’t mean fill up the car so much it starts spilling out on the ground andflooding the parking lot. With the exercise you plan to incorporate in thisweight loss program you will use all of those calories and burn the existing”fat” calories stuck on you body. By adapting this plan into your mealplan you are very unlikely to put on any more weight unless all you do is sit onyour couch all day watching TV (it burns calories just not enough). Fat caloriesare the calories you want to avoid.
Any snacks that are high in saturated fatand have a lot of total calories from fat. Now, to rid of your existing excessweight there is one and only one way, by continuous aerobic exercise. In orderfor the body to begin burning fat calories, which have a different make up ofcarbohydrate and protein calories, the body must believe it needs to use thelarger amount of calories. For most activities in life your body uses caloriesfrom carbohydrates or proteins for quick energy.
Once you have been performingan activity using your legs, i. e. jogging, biking continuous swimming, etc. , for12 minutes your body begins to use the fat calories to conserve oncarbohydrates.
Thus, after 12 minutes of aerobic exercise (which is defined ashaving your heart rate between 80-110 b. p. s) you begin to burn fat from yourbody and sweat it through your skin cells. So recommended duration for exerciseis 20 minutes for beneficial results. Performing this activity once a day wouldprobably show results more rapidly but it is recommended you do it 3-5 times aweek especially if you don’t regularly exercise. There is a note of caution forpeople who are extremely over weight to not try and over do it.
Over exercisingcan cause heart attacks so you should ease your way into exercising. Maybe startjust by walking, then a combination of walking and jogging, don’t try and overdo it hoping to get results instantly. All good things take time. So withdetermination and persistency you can be on your way to a healthier lifestyle byincorporating a healthy and plentiful diet with essential exercise.
Withoutdieting, you’re capable of sculpting a body more desirable for yourself andstaying in good health. Without buying pills and drugs and little gimmicks youcan make it much cheaper to take of that unwanted fat. Take yourself out of thatstatistic that one-third of Americans are extremely over-weight driving theminto crash dieting. Through daily exercise and the right diet gradually lose theweight which doesn’t put you at such great risks. The truth is dieting destinesyou for death, while dedication destines you for doggedness. BibliographyWSOC Health Team 9 (1998, Editors) “Dangerous Dieting” 1998 TheAssociated Press on the web Retrieved 12-10-99 from World Wide Web http://www.
gocarolinas. com/living/health/nutrition/_dieting. htmlLane, Theresa (1996) Foods That Harm Foods That Heal The Readers DigestAssociation Limited, London Berg, Francis M. (1995) Health Risks of Weight LossHettinger, ND : Healthy Weight Journal Little, Tony (Producer) (1997, May 24)”Healthy Living w/ Tony Little” Infomercial on CBS Woodworth, M. (1998Sept) [Speech by Mr.
Woodworth] At Walled Lake Central High School
