Fad diets

Saw this http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/91674 yesterday and just shook my head. Another fad diet. Lots of buzz generating lots of interest from the 'I want to lose weight and be thin without doing any real work' gang. Apparently this diet does not require exercise although it is recommended, and only appears to require a commitment of about a month. Sounds perfect doesn't it?

Wrong. The Flat Belly Diet is just another fad diet created and marketed to the eternally stupid and naive. South Beach, Atkins, the Cabbage soup diet, they're all short term answers, if you can follow them long enough. But what about after? What happens after you've lost that extra weight and don't need to follow the diet anymore? Maintenance? Sure, its there, at least the creators of these fad diets understand the need to follow a maintenance plan after, but how many follow it? Look at the number of people who are yo-yo dieters and you'll see. One diet after another, some success then failure, lose some weight, gain some more back. I'm thinking the majority of the people who use these diets and manage to not only lose the extra weight, but keep it off are in the minority.

I've known countless people who've used these programs and others and most of them are still fat. Sure, many of them lost some weight but most of them gained it back, plus. Why? Because they see it as a diet, not as a lifestyle change. They see it as a finite period of time in their lives, not something they must follow the rest of it. You don't get fat by accident. You don't get fat by eating right and exercising. You get fat by overindulging in "treats", making poor quality food choices, over-eating, being sedentary. In order to achieve permanent weight loss, you must change your eating habits forever. Accept the fact that you can't eat chips, chocolate, nachos covered in cheese sauce, fast food, pop and anything else we know is bad for us all the time. Accept that we have to get some exercise, get our heart racing to burn calories and build some muscle which burns more calories.

Too many people are looking for the "magic bullet", that elusive quick fix that will banish fat from our bodies forever. Well I've got news for you, it doesn't exist. As I cruise some weight loss forums and blogs, it never ceases to amaze me how ignorant many people are to the realities of weight gain and loss. In this day and age of information at the touch of a button, of countless books and videos on the subject, newspaper articles among other sources, how can anybody still be ignorant of cause and effect when it comes to weight? Everyone knows McDonalds and most other fast food is high fat, high calorie and not a healthy choice yet people still flock to these outlets. They'll even go to a Subway, considered a healthier choice for its fresh options, and blow it by requesting extra mayo, cheese or bacon. But to them, they've made a healthy choice because Jared said so and he lost a ton of weight. Well Jared didn't go with mayo, cheese or bacon ever. He ordered them as recommended by Subway to achieve the low fat, lower calorie advantage.

They fool themselves by buying low carb this, or low fat that, neglecting to notice the calorie count on these items. Then they'll eat more of it because they think they're doing the right thing in the first place. Ridiculous. Fad diets receive all the hype because they're sexier, they've got catchy names and celebrity endorsements, and they promise to take the weight off fast and easy. Who wouldn't want that? But celebrity endorsements are a catch situation in that they aren't like us. They have personal chefs, personal trainers and are under constant pressure from the Hollywood hype machine to maintain their thin appearance. Notice how many of these celebs once they're fifteen minutes are up, tend to balloon up? Look at Kirsty Alley. Once her career dried up, she gained a massive amount of weight. She was able to parlay that into a short lived TV series, Fat Actress, but after that, zilch. She was recruited by Jenny Craig to hawk that program and she did very well. But have you seen her lately? Notice how Jenny no longer mentions that failure? When they switched to Valerie Bertinelli, Kirsty still made appearances, then nothing. Can't show what happens after you finish the program now can we? Sadly, what happened to Kirsty happens to most people.

The doctors and dieticians are there, preaching about good lifestyle choices, exercise and the more sensible approach to your weight but nobody is listening. They don't want to hear it. What do you mean I have to eat 4-5 portions of vegetables? 7-8 glasses of water? How do I fit that in around my coffee, my afternoon pop or my beer or wine? Only 3-4oz of meat at a time? That's insane! I'll starve to death! Exercise? You mean I have to get up off the couch and move? I hate sweating!

Then stop whining and accept the fate you created for yourself. Its on you, own it.