Who’s Dieting?

Most people who are underweight or of normal weight are dieting. Crazy, right? Those that don’t need to diet, are on some form of diet. What’s weirder is that those that are obese are not dieting. That seems to defy logic. Obese individuals have tried diet after diet, and with each one, end up gaining more weight. They don’t want to get heavier so they quit dieting. Just thinking of the word diet makes me want to eat a brownie. A diet is a specific food plan that has an end date. Fad diets are usually unsustainable and unhealthy to boot. Have you tried the cookie diet? How about the one where all you drink are shakes? How fun was the cabbage soup diet? How long could anyone really have stuck with those? To make matters worse, yo-yo dieting slows your metabolism.

Just because you’ve failed at weight loss doesn’t mean you’re a failure. Forget diets. Stop eating fast food and desserts, become active, and you’ll get there. Remember what your mom used to say when you were having trouble with math? “Try, and then, try again.” Not every weight-loss program will suit everyone. To be successful at anything, you should expect to hit a few road blocks. The key is to never give up.

(Source: Sport Nutrition for Health and Performance, 2^nd Ed. pg. 167-168)