Avoid the Diet Rollercoaster

USA Today featured the dietary struggle of three American women. These sisters, who have fought obesity for most of their lives, represent millions of American women. In a desperate attempt to make progress in their fight against obesity, the sisters created a website, 3fatchicks.com, as a support system for each other and to help other women facing a similar challenge.

Each year millions of Americans resolve to lose weight. As we demonstrate by using the example of the three women, most do not understand the basic biomechanical and food processing functions of the human body. In most cases, these ill-conceived goals lead to more complex health problems and place the participant on a diet "roller-coaster."

Diet roller-coastering consists of periods where the individual adheres rigorously to a near starvation diet. This is usually followed some time later by a period of binge eating, as the person gives up on the program. Undoubtably, the individual views the experience negatively. The perceived failure generally leads to greater frustration and erodes the self-confidence of the participant.

Typically, the individual not only regains the weight temporarily shed during the starvation phase, but adds more fat pounds as a result. People who begin these programs usually end up with a higher percentage of body fat, and more unwanted weight, than they had before they started the process. Most importantly, the starvation to binge-eating cycle damages internal organs and bones.

InfoImagination visited the Sisters' website and collected information on the history of these three women. The first principle in safe, effective weight loss states there is no easy way to shed unwanted pounds. The best strategy is to begin, and maintain, a lifelong nutritional and exercise program dedicated to not gaining excessive body fat in the first place. Put simply, we cannot starve our way to fitness. We are unaware of a diet on the market today that, by itself, will lead to a properly balanced body or an optimally healthy individual. Most people use the word "diet" to refer to a reduction in caloric intake or a strict regime of food consumption. Yet the word "diet" means simply "to eat." And, we cannot "eat" our way to fitness. A healthy and fit lifestyle requires regular exercise -- as well as a properly balanced diet!

If you are one of the millions of Americans who desire to lose body fat this year, you must first start by gaining weight. Here's why:

Resolving the Weight Loss Challenge
Humans cannot safely lose body fat by dieting alone. Proper nutritional programming must be combined with exercise to accomplish effective body fat reduction. In the 3fatchicks.com scenario, we estimate the "ideal" body weight for these women to be approximately 130lbs.

This suggests each woman at her present weight of 250lbs. would have an excess of 875,000 fat calories on her body. A healthy 130lb. woman should maintain no more than 25 percent of fat on her body. Therefore, each of these women need to lose approximately 150lbs. of fat -- over one half million calories.

The reason starvation dieting does not work is the body is efficient -- it adapts. If an individual should intake approximately 1,800 calories per day, yet eats only half this amount, the body slows down. In essence, the body conserves energy. The basal metabolic rate will drop to a point where it is in equilibrium with the daily intake of food. This is why so many people who begin working out testify to their new found energy. As they exercise more. they generally eat more. The body reacts by becoming more energized.

For the women at 3fatchicks.com, they must maintain their starvation diet for 2.1 years to reach their target of 130lbs. This cannot happen. They would first become sick. As such, they fall off the roller-coaster and begin to regain lost body fat. Here's the perplexing part. The individual might not eat that much more per day. In many cases, they still eat less than they did before beginning their last diet. Yet, as the body had been starving, it replenishes the lost weight rapidly -- and, as a first priority. The resulting effect is the person ends up with more body fat, is more frustrated, and sadly, is more disappointed in themselves for the failure. What they do not understand is that they did not fail -- they just used the wrong strategy.

Here's another example: Let's assume a person tries to lose weight more slowly by eating 100 calories less per day. They might be able to continue the "starvation diet" without the body adapting and slowing down. Even if such a situation were possible, a women similar to the individuals at 3fatchicks.com would have to maintain the diet for 14.5 years. It is unlikely someone could maintain this program for this period of time.

The solution is for the overweight individual to ignite the body's natural metabolism. This occurs most efficiently through exercise. Weight training is a great place to start. By developing more muscle, one increases the body's ability to use calories. When involved in an exercise program based on weight training, one burns calories not only during the activity, but most importantly, at a significantly higher rate once the exercise period is over.

Aerobic exercise is great, but if an individual participates in an aerobic-only program, the body quickly becomes efficient. The individual must continually challenge the body to do more throughout the program. This requires the participant to continue increasing the activity level. If a person begins their program with a fifteen minute walk each day, they must add more after a week or two. A person eventually ends up walking three-to-four hours per day to obtain their desired results. As a result, people generally drop out of aerobic-only programs. The time demand simply become too great. As we try to balance time for family, work, and hobbies, we have less time for exercise.

To lose weight effectively, one must participate in a combination aerobic and muscle-gaining activity. As muscle is more dense, and thus heavier, than body fat, a person on such a program will first gain pounds. The participant must be cautioned not to watch the scale -- they need to focus on their body instead. The most common result of the aerobic, muscle-gain program is a reshaping of the body. This is usually accompanied by initial weight gain as the person develops more muscle.

This scares many women. They believe falsely that the initial muscle gain will make them bulky. They believe they will continue to gain muscle indefinitely. This is unlikely. Women are not genetically-disposed nor do they have sufficient testosterone to make large gains in muscle mass. What occurs is the participant begins to "tone up." This is good. One must recognize there is a difference between good weight gain, i.e., muscle, vs. bad weight gain, i.e., body fat.

In sum, gain weight by adding muscle when making your next (and final) attempt to lose unwanted, and unhealthy, pounds of body fat. The important thing to remember is never take a ride on the diet roller-coaster.

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