The weight loss industry makes over $60 billion a year selling you the idea that you can take a shortcut to weight loss. However, health counselor Maya Paul and Harvard nutritionist Walter Willett agree that the most successful diets require focus and discipline. The results are worth it, however. Successful weight loss can improve your self-image, health and lifespan.
Diet Basics
Dieting is an exercise in applied physics. Your body takes in calories when you eat and burns them via activity. If you eat more than you burn, your body stores the excess calories as fat. If you burn more than you eat, your body accesses the stored energy. It burns the fat and you lose weight. Any successful diet plan means creating a caloric deficit by taking in fewer calories than you burn.
Calorie Counting
The basic method behind most successful diets entails tracking your calorie intake. You can find information on the calories in most foods online for free or you can buy into one of many programs that simplify the process via cards, points or other representations of the concept.
Sustainability
A successful diet must be sustainable, reports Paul. Without sustainability, you end up cheating on or quitting your diet. When that happens, it's more likely than not that you'll put on the weight you lost from the diet. Paul reports that slow, steady weight loss is more sustainable than aggressive programs. For best sustainability, Paul recommends a plan that loses at most 1 to 2 lb. per week. Though slower than many fad diets, this still has the potential to take off 100 lb. in less than a year.
Nutrition and Food
In his landmark book "Eat, Drink and Be Healthy," Willett says that the best weight loss diets follow the tenets of a healthy regular diet, just in smaller proportions. A successful diet should be congruent with a healthy eating plan such as the Harvard Food Pyramid. Diets that recommend avoiding or gorging on one kind of food are less healthy and will be less successful in the long run.
Maintenance Plan
A successful diet must have a maintenance stage. This means it includes advice or instructions about how to maintain your goal weight once you reach it. Paul reports that many people revert to old eating habits once they reach their goal weight, meaning they're back to their old weight in less than a year. When considering different diet plans, choose one with this important feature.
Exercise
Dieting paired with exercise is the most efficient way to lose weight and keep it off. "Body for Life" author Bill Phillips recommends six days of exercise per week, with 20 minutes per day. Exercise improves your metabolic rate, meaning you burn more calories with every activity -- even sleeping. It also gives you brief periods of high calorie burn, meaning you can eat more and still maintain a successful calorie deficit. This makes your diet less of a hardship and more likely to succeed.
References
- HelpGuide.org: Healthy Weight Loss and Dieting
- "Eat, Drink and Be Healthy"; Walter Willett, M.D., et al; 2006
- "Body for Life"; Bill Philips; 1999
Member Comments