Weight Loss: Choosing A Diet Plan You Can Live With

Americans are fatter than ever.

You've probably read this several times recently, in the newspaper, in women's magazines, or even in the introduction to many of the hundreds of diet books lining the shelves at your local mall or supermarket. The reason for our progressive pudge?-Some experts will tell you it's because we indulge in too many calorically-dense, nutritionally deficient convenience foods; others will claim it's due to misinformation about proper nutrition and exercise; still others claim current facts and studies are incorrect-and new theories are called for to control a weighty problem that is reaching pandemic proportions.

Last June the World Health Organization declared obesity an invasive industrialized disease afflicting half of the world's adult population! The statistics aren't much lighter for Americans either-according to a recent report from the National Center for Health Statistics, at least half of American adults are overweight; and our children aren't fairing much better, with 20 percent of adolescents ages six to 17 years weighing in over the acceptable range.

Obesity is defined as an excess of body fat exceeding 25 percent of a man's body weight or 30 percent of a women's body weight. Although hypothyroidism or medications can cause weight gain, fat accumulation occurs when a person's calorie intake exceeds the amount of energy burned. Extra fat is stored in the adipose tissues under the skin, increasing fat cell size. In individuals with extreme obesity, fat cell numbers are also increased.

Although obesity is now generally recognized as a disease caused by genetic, environmental, and psychological factors, (rather than a weakness or moral failing), it does have a cure-albeit a complex one involving permanent diet and lifestyle changes. Taking the cure does have its health advantages; as obesity is connected to a variety of serious non-communicable diseases including non-insulin, adult-onset diabetes; coronary heart disease; high blood pressure; stroke; several types of cancer; gallbladder disease; musculoskeletal disorders; and respiratory problems. Losing even a small amount of body fat will reduce one's risk.

Obesity also creates a tremendous psychological burden for men and women living with a fashion and entertainment industry that idolizes trim figures. Looking better is often the strongest incentive for losing extra body fat, and at any given time almost one-half of women and one-fourth of men are trying to lose weight.

WHO'S NEEDING THE ADVICE?

Despite the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) best efforts to direct us toward an active lifestyle that includes a diet that is well-balanced; low in fat and cholesterol; moderate in sugar and salt; and rich in whole grains, fruits, and vegetables-it's a fact, Americans tend to choose taste and convenience over nutritional content and generally don't get enough exercise.

A study in the September issue of Pediatrics reported that only one percent of young Americans (ages two to 19) eat a recommended healthy diet. In reality, young people are obtaining 40 percent of their fuel from fat and sugar (despite the USDA's recommended 10 percent or less). As many dietary habits and food preferences are adapted at an early age and are strongly influenced by environment-it seems the USDA's message has yet to sink in for children and the adults raising them.

The 1997 American Dietetic Association's Nutrition Trends Survey, reveals that about 20 percent of Americans believe eating well takes too much time, and would involve giving up foods they enjoy. The same number also say confusion or frustration over conflicting diet and health reports is a major barrier preventing them from doing all they can to eat well.

There is much truth in the confusion claims. Weight loss is a complex process involving how well food is metabolized in the body. Diet experts have been trying for years to come up with a formula that will work for most people, helping them to lose excess body fat without feeling deprived or frustrated. Veggie Life took a close look at four very different approaches to slimming from the best selling diet and weight loss authors of the 1990s. Each plan has its pluses and minuses, it's up to you to decide on a new diet and weight loss plan you'll be happy to live with.

IDENTIFYING A GOOD WEIGHT-LOSS PLAN

The USDA and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), recommend choosing a diet that contains the following criteria:

• LOWER IN CALORIES (300-500 calories fewer than normal daily), yet includes 100 percent of the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for vitamins, minerals, and protein. Women in general need 2,000 calories a day to maintain weight-2,500 for men.
• A diet resulting in SLOW, STEADY WEIGHT LOSS of no more than one to two pounds per week. Any more will result in fluid loss, easily regained when regular eating habits are resumed.
• EAT A VARIETY OF NUTRITIOUS FOODS. Avoid low calorie "fad" diets that exclude whole categories of foods such as carbohydrates-they may be lacking in nutrients.
• FILL UP ON FOODS HIGH IN FIBER such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, and whole grains. Fiber helps you feel full without adding calories.
• CONSUME LESS THAN 30 PERCENT CALORIES FROM FAT. Fat is the most concentrated source of calories (9 per gram-whereas protein and carbohydrates have only 4 calories per gram).
• PROVIDES GUIDELINES FOR WEIGHT MAINTENANCE once desired weight is reached.
• PARTICIPATE IN MODERATE EXERCISE a minimum of 30 minutes a day to increase calorie burning.
• CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR if you plan to lose more than 15 to 20 pounds, have any health problems, or take medications.

REGAINING SANITY


About The Author:
What is the insanity? According to Susan Powter, it's women hating the way they look and feel beset by a multimillion-dollar diet industry that fails to help them lose weight permanently, and a fitness industry that excludes the unfit. Susan should know, she once weighed-in at 260 pounds and had to find her own way through the misinformation to uncover a size 4 aerobics and exercise guru.

Powter is the author of the New York Times Bestseller Stop the Insanity! (Simon & Schuster, 1993), soon followed by several more best-selling books, television appearances, and videos on low-fat cooking, diet, and fitness.

From Fat to Fit:
"I am not a physician, dietitian, or nutritionist. I am a housewife who figured it out. Broke the system."

Susan Powter's anecdotal explanations of the myths and truths of diet and exercise comes from her own personal experiences as a "260-pound housewife, feeling desperately out of control, afraid, trying every diet out there, and failing." (And there's old photos of her to prove it!) She had tried all the fad diet programs only to gain all the weight back and then some. Eventually she "gave up" on the diet industry and did it herself, discovering the following facts:

• Reduced-calorie diets send the body into starvation mode, which slows metabolism and increases fat storage. Starvation also makes you crave high calorie foods
• The weight you lose on a calorie deficient diet is lean muscle mass and water. Which 98 percent of us gain back as fat. Leaving the body fatter and weaker. The only way to rebuild muscle mass is through exercise.

Eating Right:
"Food doesn't make you fat," writes Powter, "fat makes you fat." At nine calories per gram, fat is the most calorically dense food you can eat. Do not skip meals and eat as much as you want as long as it's 30 percent calories from fat or less, she advises. Become a fat detective and learn how to read labels and figure the percentage of calories from fat per serving.

To figure percent of calories from fat, take the number of grams of fat per serving, multiply by 9 (9 calories per gram of fat) and divide by the total calories per serving. Do the math, and you may discover many of your favorite "reduced" foods calculate much higher than 30 percent.

Powter recommends a diet based on whole grains, legumes, and vegetables, followed by a reduced amount of processed grains, starches, and fruit. Occasional lean proteins like fish, poultry breast, and egg whites are OK.

Breathing Right:
Susan lays down the facts:

• we don't get enough oxygen despite that fact we have 75 trillion cells to feed.
• we never think about improving our breathing.
• we don't use or give credit to a life-giving force.

Breathing and moving burns fat. She shows you how to breathe deeply from the abdomen and advises to stop and take a good breath at least 100 times a day.

Moving Right:
Powter knows the hardest part of starting to exercise is facing your fitness level, or lack there of. Anyone can build their fitness level, it just requires modification. Your local gym tailors to the upper 10 percent fitness level of the population-leaving unfit people feeling humiliated in their efforts to keep up.

Powter has dedicated herself to teaching women of ALL fitness levels how to begin to increase their cardio-endurance, upper and lower body strength, burn fat, and change their lives forever. Her book contains a complete resistance workout for muscle tone and endurance, with modifications for people who have never exercised before in their lives. She recommends 30 minutes five to six days a week within 46 percent of your maximum heart rate to allow you to work at a lower level of intensity for a longer duration.

How to Measure Obesity

The easiest way to determine if you are within a desirable body weight range is to figure your Body Mass Index(BMI). You find your BMI by dividing your weight in kilograms (kg) by your height in meters (m) squared.

Men with a BMI over 27.8 and women over 27.3 are generally considered obese. Persons age 35 or older are obese if they have a BMI of 27 or more. For those under 34, a BMI of 25 or more is considered obese.

weight kg / height m

27 = mild obesity
30 = moderate
35 = severe
40 = very severe

OPENING THE MIND/BODY CONNECTION: PERFECT WEIGHT


Deepak Chopra, MD, is the director of The Sharp Institute for Human Potential and Mind/Body Medicine in San Diego, CA, and author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller Ageless Body, Timeless Mind (Harmony Books, 1993). Dr. Chopra has also authored Harmony's popular Perfect Health Library book series covering topics from relationships to weight loss from the perspective of Ayurveda, a 5,000 year old Indian health system. In 1994's Perfect Weight, Dr. Chopra explores the principals of weight loss from a mind/body perspective.

Developing Mindfulness:
In our busy, hectic lives we often leave ourselves little time to adequately prepare and enjoy meals. Skipping breakfast and catching lunch while running back to the office stifles our awareness of nourishment and satisfaction. We make a habit of ignoring hunger and eating when stressed or upset. Losing our connection to food creates imbalances in the body and mind and leads to overeating, weight gain, and malnutrition.

"By combining the correct physical activity with appropriate nutritional principles-you can begin to reset your biological thermostat to a level where fat is more easily burned and food is converted into life-giving energy," writes Dr. Chopra in Perfect Weight, a primer for reconnecting ourselves to the process of eating and digestion, rebalancing the body through proper foods, habits, and exercise to help the body return to "normal" weight.

Everyone is Different:
Dr. Chopra teaches us that ideal weight in Ayurveda is not based on graphs or charts-when the body is in balance and healthy, your weight will go to a level that is normal for you. Biological, emotional, and spiritual elements are unique in everyone and different people will respond differently to food and exercise. Three basic body types are recognized in Ayurveda: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha. Everyone is a combination of all three, but most are dominant in one or two.

In terms of eating habits: vatas are prone to irregular digestion, constipation, and skip meals; Pittas feel ravenous quickly, cannot skip meals, and are prone to heartburn; while Kaphas seek emotional comfort from food, tend to be overweight, and digest slowly. The book contains a questionnaire to help you determine your dosha type or types. Dr. Chopra then, according to each dosha, recommends what foods to eat in combination with body and mind exercises to help achieve better eating habits and digestion. Ayurvedic herbs, yoga, and massage are also recommended to help bring the body into balance.

Recommended foods for different body types are often described in terms of property: "Light, dry, bitter foods," rather than percentages of carbohydrates, or fats. Some suggested foods include: milk, fruits, beans, grains, vegetables, spices, and honey in different variations. Vegetarians are also able to follow the dietary advice. The following guidelines should be followed by all dosha types:

What and How to Eat:

• eat only when hungry
• do not eat past the point of comfort
• eat your biggest meal at noon when digestion is strongest
• eat in a quiet place, sitting down
• do not eat when upset
• pay attention to chewing and swallowing
• sit quietly a few minutes after your meal
• avoid ice-cold foods and drinks
• cut back on heavy meats
• eat more freshly cooked vegetable and grains
• use digestive-stimulating spices like turmeric and ginger
• cut back on sweets
• avoid refined foods, alcohol, and caffeine

Exercise:
Dr. Chopra recommends moderate exercise seven days a week at 50 percent of your limit to prevent undue stress on the body which can cause imbalance. He recommends exercises specific to each dosha from walking and yoga to aerobics and dance.


Carbs vs. Protein Debate:
"We all like to hear good news about our bad habits," writes John McDougall, MD in the August issue of The McDougall Newsletter, summing up his opinions about Barry Sears' very popular 40/30/30 Zone diet. He notes high-protein, low carbohydrate diets are still popular despite, "well-publicized scientific evidence that says these diets provide only short-term weight loss," and are made up of foods known to cause serious diseases...because "people love to hear there is a gimmick, like 'entering the Zone,' that will somehow trick their body into losing extra fat without having to give up the foods they love."

Dr. McDougall explains that high protein diets do help people initially lose weight, fast. This loss is mostly water released as the body accesses stored carbohydrates. If the diet is low enough in carbs, then the body goes into ketosis, causing suppression of appetite. "I call these 'the make yourself sick diets,'" writes Dr. McDougall. "Ketosis is a natural state that occurs when people are sick...a time when they should be recuperating [rather than gathering and preparing food]."

Barry Sears, however, contends that The Zone is not a high-protein, ketosis-inducing diet-rather it is a protein, fat, and carbohydrate adequate diet aimed at lowering and controlling insulin levels raised by overconsumption of carbohydrates. In direct contradiction to Dr. McDougall, Sears maintains that eating fat doesn't make you fat -weight gain is the result of the body converting excess carbohydrates and storing them as fat.

Dr. McDougall strongly disagrees with this theory stating that "very little carbohydrate is stored as fat-most is burned by the body and released as heat." To eliminate the "glucose-rush" from his recommended 80 percent carbohydrate diet, McDougall recommends eating whole unprocessed grains and fruits and vegetables-to slow the delivery of glucose into the blood stream, keeping insulin levels normal.


About The Author:
John McDougall, MD, is a board-certified internist who created and directs the McDougall Program-a 12 day live-in dietary and nutritional regimen at St. Helena Hospital in Napa, California. He also hosts his own nationally-syndicated television program "McDougall, MD." Among his national best-selling books, The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss (Dutton, 1994), is a weight loss primer based on the principles of his highly successful program.

Dr. McDougall was one of the first traditional physicians to assert that adopting a meatless diet can reverse and prevent the development of chronic diseases. His program is centered on a starch-based, very low-fat diet that helps his patients achieve dramatic health changes from weight loss to reversal of heart disease and diabetes.

Carbo Power:
The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss is a carbohydrate-centered, very low-fat diet and exercise program. Dieters are advised to eat recommended whole foods until they are satisfied. Common reduced-calorie diets limit food intake, sending the body into starvation mode-the more you limit the natural need to eat, the harder it is to lose weight.

Dr. McDougall explains the principals of the diet as based on the body's natural need for carbohydrates (the main source of fuel for the body), we crave carbohydrates and deficiency can lead to overeating and too much fat and sugar intake causing weight gain. According to Dr. McDougall, carbohydrates don't make you fat: very little carbohydrate is converted to and stored as fat-most excess carb is burned by the body and released as heat. In fact, carbohydrates relieve depression and decrease hunger by increasing levels of serotonin in the brain. "A lunch centered around breast of chicken leaves you starved for the sugar in your after-lunch candy bar," writes Dr. McDougall.

The McDougall diet is a scientifically-sound diet based on the well-documented results of patients participating in the McDougall Program at St. Helena Hospital. On average, persons who follow the diet lose six to 15 pounds per month, until they begin to reach their ideal body weight, when weight loss slows.

What foods to eat:
The "rules" of the McDougall plan are very simple-you are encouraged to eat as much as you want of the following unprocessed, high carbohydrate foods:

• unprocessed whole grains and whole grain cereals
• green and yellow vegetables, squash, and root vegetables
• legumes
• ruit (limited to two servings per day)
• a little sugar, and salt is allowed on top of foods for taste

What foods to avoid:
Foods that contain cholesterol and significant amounts of fat are to be eliminated as are refined, processed grains, which can raise insulin levels:

• all meat: red meat, poultry, and fish
• all dairy products (milk, yogurt, cheese) and eggs
• all oils: olive, safflower, corn etc.
• Nuts, seeds, avocado, olives, and soybean products
• all dried fruits and fruit juices
• all flour products: breads, bagels, and pretzels

Exercise and Maintenance:
Dr. McDougall recommends moderate exercise (such as walking, or swimming) at least four times a week to increase the ate of weight loss by burning more calories. Exercise improves mood, reduces anxiety and stress, and increases resting metabolic rates while suppressing appetite and lowering insulin levels.

The McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss comes complete with a 21-day, three-meal-a-day menu with recipes to help people get started. Learning to cook without dairy, eggs, and oil can sound almost impossible to some, but the recipes are a great way to help you learn.

ENTERING THE ZONE

About The Author:
The Zone by Barry Sears, PhD, (Regan Books, 1995); and its follow-up Mastering the Zone (Regan Books, 1997), have taken the diet and nutrition industry by storm. Both New York Times Bestsellers have done their part in raising public question of the standard government and physician recommended grain-based diet (USDA diet pyramid). A biochemical researcher by profession, Sears contends that "Virtually every dietary recommendation made by the US government and leading nutritional experts is hormonally dead wrong." To achieve optimal hormonal balance and enter the Zone requires a diet carefully balanced to 40 percent carbohydrate, 30 percent protein, and 30 percent fat (40/30/30).

Curbing Carbohydrates:
Sears believes the biggest foes in the American diet are pasta, bread, potatoes, rice, cereals, and sweets-or so-called "bad" carbohydrates. These carbohydrates are quickly converted into glucose which rushes into the blood stream. The pancreas responds by secreting insulin to bring the blood sugar level back down. Sears theorizes that a steady high starch, sugar-laden diet can result in exaggerated insulin levels in some people. Raised insulin levels signal the body to store fat and keep it stored, resulting in weight gain. When glucose falls below a certain level, the brain, which needs glucose to function, calls out for more by telling you to eat again. In addition, elevated insulin levels can result in foggy brain and decreased physical performance, i.e. the "three pm slump."


Eating in the Zone:
Using food to bring insulin and subsequent hormones into balance is what entering the Zone is all about. "The Zone is not really a diet book-it's a testimony to the power of food in controlling hormonal response," writes Sears. In addition to weight management, Sears contends that eating in the Zone can lower your risk of developing many chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Getting to and staying in the Zone requires eating three meals a day plus two snacks in 100 percent compliance with the 40/30/30 diet make-up. Fortunately, Sears does most of the measuring for you and breaks down the proper 40/30/30 percentages into "blocks" of carbohydrate, protein, and fat. (For example, one block of protein is equal to 5 oz. skinless chicken breast or 3 oz. firm tofu.) To eat in the Zone, every meal must contain an equal number of blocks-one carb to one fat to one protein. The number of blocks you require per meal can be figured by using the provided worksheets to determine your percent body fat and lean tissue mass, plus activity levels, to determine your protein requirement. Women need two to three blocks of protein, carbohydrate, and fat at every meal, men three to four.

Coming into Balance:
Sears advises to get your carbohydrate-40 in the form of fruits and vegetables, not grains. "The best way to fatten cattle and humans is to feed them excessive amounts of low-fat grain." High-fiber fruits and vegetables slow the release of glucose into the bloodstream (except for sugary papayas, bananas, corn, potatoes, and carrots). Adequate protein intake (30 percent) helps the body maintain tissues, hormones, and lean body mass-improving body/mind performance. Low-fat protein sources include: skinless chicken breast, egg whites, and tofu. The 30 percent fat requirement should be consumed in the form of monounsaturated fat: olive oil, canola oil, olives, avocado, and macadamia nuts. Eight ounces of water or sugar-free decaf beverages should accompany each meal or snack.

Sears' second book Mastering the Zone, supplements his first book with more Zone recipes, a week-long menu plan, meal templates, and shopping and dining guidelines to help you find your way into the Zone.

Choose to Lose:
Although the recommendations found in these four plans differ, some basic elements hold true for all: eat to satisfaction, don't skip meals, get at least some moderate exercise everyday, eat less processed foods and simple carbohydrates (white bread, rice, and pasta), and eat more fiber-rich whole grains, legumes, and fruits and vegetables, and finally, cut back on fats, sugars, alcohol, and caffeine. Mindfulness of what we eat and how we treat our bodies is a big first step in making a permanent change for the thinner.