Does intermittent dieting equal long term results?
What is dieting?
Dieting is when you restrict yourself to small amounts or special kinds of food to lose weight.
Does dieting work?
Many people do lose weight when dieting. The problem is a diet is a temporary, short-term plan, not a long-term solution. Many regain lost weight after the diet ends.
What about intermittent dieting?
Continuous dieting is very restrictive and often difficult to maintain for the required length of time to hit goal weight levels. This has led to increased interest in intermittent energy restriction. An example of intermittent energy restriction is alternate-day fasting. This type of dieting involves a “fast day” with reduced or no energy consumed followed by an all you want “feast day”. Another intermittent energy restriction example is a 5 and 2 regime where you eat however you desire five days and fast on two days.
However, the greater problems with diets is seen at the six month mark when weight regain often occurs.
Dieting and Vitamin Losses
Did you know when you diet you are frequently sacrificing vitamins and minerals?
When you diet, you don’t just cut calories, you also reduce your intake of vitamins and minerals.
Standford University researchers evaluated the effects of different diets (Atkins, Zone, LEARN, and Ornish) of 300 overweight and obese women. The women reduced their daily caloric intake by 500 calories and all women reduced their overall vitamin and mineral intakes. Vitamin E was reduced the most – 65%.
Researchers were surprised to note that women following the Zone diet actually saw an increase in vitamin A, E, and K intake and no reduction in other nutrients.
When losing weight it’s important to not compromise your overall health. The best bet is a balanced weight loss plan you can stick with long term.
All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
http://lisanelsonrd.com
Diet Myths – 5 Biggest Diet Myths Revealed!
Losing weight or maintaining a healthy weight is a key step towards heart health. Later this month I’m hosting a free teleclass with fellow dietitian Ursula Ridens if you want to know how to lose we1ght and keep it off – permanently!
You are invited to the FREE teleclass on Tuesday, August 31, titled
“5 Biggest Dieting Myths Revealed“
On this call, we’re revealing EXACTLY which dieting strategies will help you shed the pounds once and for all, so you can look good, feel great, and enjoy life!
(And more importantly, how YOU can lose we1ght and keep it off – permanently!)
In this information packed call, you’ll discover:
Heart Healthy Eating – 7 Salad Bar Mistakes to Avoid
When trying to be heart healthy and lose weight a salad can be a great choice to include as a regular part of your meal plan – either as a vegetable side or the main entrée.
However, a salad can quickly become a weight loss disaster if you make the 7 mistakes below!
Mistake #1 – Selecting iceberg lettuce.
Iceberg lettuce is one of the most common forms of lettuce you’ll find in grocery stores and salad bars. Unfortunately iceberg lettuce provides minimal nutrients (mostly crunchy water). Select dark green, leafy lettuce varieties, such as romaine and endive. Also, greens like spinach and arugula provide added nutrients to your salad mix.
Mistake #2 – Skimping on fresh vegetables.
You can afford to splurge on fresh vegetables, such as broccoli, carrots, cabbage, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, and mushrooms. Fresh vegetables are low in calories and rich in vitamins and minerals.
Mistake #3 – Skipping the protein.
If your salad is your entrée it’s important to add some protein, such as chopped eggs, nuts and seeds, beans, or shredded meat (turkey/ham/chicken/seafood). Refer to How Much Protein Do You Need to Lose Weight? for a review of your protein needs.
Mistake #4 – Choosing a cream based soup.
Soup is often included on salad bars. Cream based soups tend to be high in calories and fat. Opt for broth based soups instead.
Mistake #5 – Loading up on salad toppings
Croutons, sesame noodles, and bacon bits are a few common salad toppings. These topping should be used sparingly. They provide minimal nutrients and are high in calories.
Mistake #6 – Selecting a high fat, high calorie salad dressing.
Now, if you’ve avoided the first five mistakes, you don’t want to ruin your nutritious salad with a poor dressing choice. Opt for vinegar based salad dressings or low fat/calorie salad dressing if available and use sparingly. Tip: Dip your fork in a small cup of salad dressing before every bite instead of pouring the dressing on your salad. You get great flavor with every bite and use significantly less dressing.
Mistake #7 – Making too many trips to the salad bar.
Even if your salad bar includes unlimited trips it’s not necessary to go back multiple times – which can be very tempting. Decide in advance how many trips you’ll make and stick with your plan. Even though a well-balanced salad is a healthy choice, too much of a good thing can quickly turn bad!
All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
Weight Loss in 2010: The Non-Diet Way
A Non-Diet New Year’s resolution? Yes, you’ve read this correctly. More typically, your friends, family, and perhaps you would be kicking off the New Year with the latest fad diet to change your appearance and achieve a more socially accepted thin figure. Before making this decision you should consider that dieting often leads to some unwanted side effects, such as low energy levels, feelings of deprivation, low blood sugar, and cravings for those favorite foods that you won’t allow yourself to eat. Some people may even experience overeating or binge eating as a result of going through periods of low nutrition or deprivation. To top it off, the weight loss that you may achieve is most likely temporary. Coming off a diet usually means that you will return to the previous eating patterns that you were dissatisfied with and that drove you to diet in the first place.
You can make your New Year’s resolution more reasonable by adopting the Non-Diet way to achieve a healthy figure, and peace with food and your body. Rather than a love-hate relationship, try learning to develop a more healthful relationship with food.
- Listen to your body’s hunger and fullness cues.
- Learn how to identify and respond appropriately to these cues and make more informed decisions about when to start and stop eating.
- Follow your taste preferences.
All foods can fit into a healthful eating plan when eaten in moderation. Balanced eating, including carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, can curb your appetite, result in feeling satisfied after eating, improve energy, stabilize blood sugar levels, and also help to maintain a weight that is appropriate and healthy for you.
Along with your newly adopted Non-Diet approach to eating, challenge yourself to explore forms of movement that you find enjoyable. Your weight management goals will be met more easily by incorporating regular activity that you look forward to doing.
Keep your personal weight goals realistic. You may want to evaluate your own ideas about thinness and move more towards accepting that health results from sound nutrition and activity practices and comes in bodies of all shapes and sizes.
Now, how are you going to make your New Year’s goal a reality in 2010? Join dietitians Ursula Ridens RD and Lisa Nelson RD for the free teleclass “5 Steps to Kick Start Your Weight Loss in 2010!”. You’ll learn exactly how to move from where you are now to where you want to be by the end of 2010. Go to http://www.lisanelsonrd.com/newu/newyearcall.html to sign up! Come prepared to participate!
All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
Weight Loss – Do you need to change the way you think to lose weight?
It’s the New Year and there’s a good chance you’ve set a weight loss goal for your New Year’s resolution. By losing weight you’ll dramatically reduce your heart disease risk, lower blood pressure, and lower cholesterol. However, according to studies, the chances of you achieving your weight loss goal this year are slim.
I want to increase your chance of success, but it might require a mind shift! I have a couple issues I want you to explore your thoughts on.
1. Dieting
The first is whether or not you should make a mental shift around the whole “dieting” issue. Let’s focus on the word itself – “diet”. I want you to think about and explore your reaction and feelings when you hear the word “diet” and when you think about “going on a diet”. What comes to mind?
Examples would be feelings of restriction, thoughts of the short-term, such as I’ll do the South Beach Diet for two weeks to jump start my weight loss, another thought may be limits, and thought’s of what you can and can’t have once you start a diet. Of course, it’s possible you have a more positive reaction, such as hopeful and excited about the possibilities. My gut reaction is negative, which is probably why I can come up with a longer list of negatives for examples! I feel a tightening in my stomach when I think about “going on a diet”. I immediately have thoughts about the foods I can’t have, I feel restricted, and I think about when the diet will be over.
Have you considered another option to reach your weight loss or other health goals besides dieting? Here’s what I want you to consider now and in the days to come. Do you have to go on a diet to meet your goals? Instead, could you focus on healthy living and making healthy choices. Generally the word diet implies a short term approach and gives short term results. If you like statistics, statistics show 95% of people who lose weight on a diet gain it back. That’s not very encouraging. If you make a commitment to healthy living or healthy choices you shift to a long term mindset. A type of thinking that supports small changes over time that lead to permanent results.
Take some time and explore your reaction to the two statements:
“I’m making healthy choices.”
Versus
“I’m starting a diet.”
Which has a more positive feel for you?
If this isn’t something you’ve considered before, it’s simply a shift in thinking I’d like you explore. See if you need to adjust your mindset.
2. All or Nothing Approach
Okay, let’s move on to the second issue I want you to consider – Does if have to be an “All or Nothing Approach”?
Do you have to change all your bad habits at once to be successful?
For example, going on a raw food diet is probably a drastic change for most of us. (FYI – I’m in no way recommending a raw food diet, simply an example.) Is that the type of approach you need or would you be more successful targeting one or two not so healthy habits to change at a time? Once you’ve successful changed those habits, you move on to new ones.
“Strict diets” and “all or nothing approaches” generally fail. It is unrealistic to expect yourself to stick with a strict diet plan forever. Many people are gung ho at the beginning of a diet, after a week or two they start to slack off and “cheat” on the diet. Feelings of guilt and failure come in and thoughts of “well I’ve already blown today, I’ll start fresh tomorrow”, and then the gradual plummet back to old unhealthy habits.
So, I encourage you to consider a more open approach to achieving your health or weight loss goals. Does it have to be all or nothing?
Receive nutrition coaching from dietitian Lisa Nelson, as well as heart health and weight loss tips when you sign up for The Heart of Health. Subscribers receive the free bonus report “Stop Wasting Money – Take Control of Your Health”.
All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
