Fad diets that ignore the principles of the Dietary Guidelines may result in short term weight loss, but may do so at the risk of your health. How you go about managing your weight has a lot to do with your long-term success. Unless your health is seriously at risk due to complications from being overweight or obese, gradual weight loss should be your rule — and your goal.

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The Facts About Weight Loss

Being obese can have serious health consequences. These include an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, gallstones, and some forms of cancer. Losing weight can help reduce these risks. Here are some general points to keep in mind:

• Any claims that you can lose weight effortlessly are false. The only proven way to lose weight is either to reduce the number of calories you eat or to increase the number of calories you burn off through exercise. Most experts recommend a combination of both.
• Very low-calorie diets are not without risk and should be pursued only under medical supervision. Unsupervised very low-calorie diets can deprive you of important nutrients and are potentially dangerous.
• Fad diets rarely have any permanent effect. Sudden and radical changes in your eating patterns are difficult to sustain over time. In addition, so-called "crash" diets often send dieters into a cycle of quick weight loss, followed by a "rebound" weight gain once normal eating resumes, and even more difficulty reducing when the next diet is attempted.
• To loose weight safely and keep it off requires long-term changes in daily eating and exercise habits. Many experts recommend a goal of losing about a pound a week. A modest reduction of 500 calories per day will achieve this goal, since a total reduction of 3,500 calories is required to lose a pound of fat. An important way to lower your calorie intake is to learn and practice healthy eating habits.

In Search of the "Magic Bullet"

Some dieters peg their hopes on pills and capsules that promise to "burn," "block," "flush," or otherwise eliminate fat from the system. But science has yet to come up with a low-risk "magic bullet" for weight loss. Some pills may help control the appetite, but they can have serious side effects. (Amphetamines, for instance, are highly addictive and can have an adverse impact on the heart and central nervous system.) Other pills are utterly worthless.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and a number of state Attorney General have successfully brought cases against marketers of pills claiming to absorb or burn fat. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned 111 ingredients once found in over-the-counter diet products. None of these substances, which include alcohol, caffeine, dextrose, and guar gum, have proved effective in weight-loss or appetite suppression.

Beware of the following products that are touted as weight-loss wonders:

• Diet patches, which are worn on the skin, have not been proven to be safe or effective. The FDA has seized millions of these products from manufacturers and promoters.
• "Fat blockers" purport to physically absorb fat and mechanically interfere with the fat a person eats.
• "Starch blockers" promise to block or impede starch digestion. Not only is the claim unproven, but users have complained of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach pains.
• "Magnet" diet pills allegedly "flush fat out of the body." The FTC has brought legal action against several marketers of these pills.
• Glucomannan is advertised as the "Weight Loss Secret That's Been in the Orient for Over 500 Years." There is little evidence supporting this plant root's effectiveness as a weight-loss product.
• Some bulk producers or fillers, such as fiber-based products, may absorb liquid and swell in the stomach, thereby reducing hunger. Some fillers, such as guar gum, can even prove harmful, causing obstructions in the intestines, stomach, or esophagus. The FDA has taken legal action against several promoters containing guar gum.
• Spirulina, a species of blue-green algae, has not been proven effective for losing weight.

Diet Programs

Approximately 8 million Americans a year enroll in some kind of structured weight-loss program involving liquid diets, special diet regimens, or medical or other supervision. In 1991, about 8,500 commercial diet centers were in operation across the country, many of them owned by a half-dozen or so well-known national companies.

Before you join such a program, you should know that according to published studies relatively few participants succeed in keeping off weight long-term. Recently, the FTC brought action against several companies challenging weight-loss and weight-maintenance claims. Unfortunately, some other companies continue to make overblown claims.

The FTC stopped one company from claiming its diet program caused rapid weight loss through the use of tablets that would "burn fat" and a protein drink mix that would adjust metabolism. The FTC also took action against three major programs using doctor-supervised, very low-calorie liquid diets, and they agreed to stop making claims unless they could back them up with hard data.

Before you sign up with a diet program, you might ask these questions:

• What are the health risks?
• What data can you show me that proves your program actually works?
• Do customers keep off the weight after they leave the diet program? ?
• What are the costs for membership, weekly fees, food, supplements, maintenance, and counseling? What's the payment schedule? Are any costs covered under health insurance? Do you give refunds if I drop out?
• Do you have a maintenance program? Is it part of the package or does it cost extra?
• What kind of professional supervision is provided? What are the credentials of these professionals?
• What are the program's requirements? Are there special menus or foods, counseling visits, or exercise plans?

Clues to Fraud

It is important for consumers to be wary of claims that sound too good to be true. When it comes to weight-loss schemes, consumers should be particularly skeptical of claims containing words and phrases like:

• easy
• effortless
• guaranteed
• miraculous
• magical
• breakthrough
• new discovery
• mysterious
• exotic
• secret
• exclusive
• ancient

Sensible Weight Maintenance Tips

Losing weight may not be effortless, but it doesn't have to be complicated. To achieve long-term results, it's best to avoid quick-fix schemes and complex regimens. Focus instead on making modest changes to your life's daily routine. A balanced, healthy diet and sensible, regular exercise are the keys to maintaining your ideal weight. Although nutrition science is constantly evolving, here are some generally-accepted guidelines for losing weight:

• Consult with your doctor, a dietician, or other qualified health professional to determine your ideal healthy body weight.
• Eat smaller portions and choose from a variety of foods.
• Load up on foods naturally high in fiber: Fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains.
• Limit portions of foods high in fat: dairy products like cheese, butter, and whole milk; red meat; cakes and pastries.
• Exercise at least three times a week.

Resistance Training

As you lose weight, a proportion of the weight you lose will be from muscle. It is important to maintain muscle mass. Besides being important for your level of strength, muscle is a metabolically active tissue. This means that even at rest, muscle is using more energy than other tissues. If you lose muscle, you will need to decrease your calorie intake even further to continue to lose weight and to maintain weight loss.

Resistance training using weights can play an important role in your overall weight loss program. Weight training can be very important in maintaining muscle mass. It also improves strength and appearance, both of which can provide a great deal of motivation and encourage a person to maintain their physical activity program.

Weight Loss vs. Weight Maintenance

I would like to stress again the importance of physical activity in maintaining weight loss. Most people who try to lose weight end up gaining most of the weight back. The best way to keep the weight off is to continue a physical activity program even after the initial weight loss program has ended. Numerous studies have shown that that people who keep their weight off are the ones who continue with physical activity programs even after their diets are over.

Summary

Increasing physical activity is only one component of a weight loss program. Exercise by itself will not result in meaningful weight loss unless it is combined with dietary changes. In choosing physical activities and setting activity goals, remember that consistency is extremely important. Consistency is what will provide you with the important long-term benefits from the physical activity. Chose activities that you enjoy, start slow and increase your intensity as you are able.

Increasing physical activity needs to be a lifelong lifestyle change. Although it is an important part of a weight loss program, physical activity is even more important in keeping the weight you lose from coming back. The benefits from physical activity do not end at weight loss. They include increased emotional well being, increased strength, increased endurance and most of all, improved overall health.

As always, before starting a vigorous physical activity program, consult your physician.

 
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