I was at the grocery store the other day, and while waiting to buy my cereal, fruit and milk, I started looking over the various magazine offerings on the racks nearby. This is what I read:
"Get a Beach Body in 10 Days!"
"Kathly lost 18 pounds in 13 days!"
"Drop one pound every day!"
"Get a Flat Belly--Be Fit and Firm in 9 days!"
"Lose 10 pounds in 4 weeks!"
"Eat These Fat-Melting Meals!"
"Counting Calories Doesn't Work--THIS Does!"
"Recipes That Blast Away Fat!"
...and, of course, my absolute favorite:
"Hot Legs in 6 Days! ...We Promise!"
I stood there, my jaw nearly on the floor. It suddenly hit me that I was reading what I now call The Big Lie that magazines perpetuate: that weight loss can be super fast, you can actually look like the highly-airbrushed cover models in mere days, and that there is some "magic bullet" that will transform your body and "blast away" the fat, leaving you one "hot" babe (or dude).
Trust me. If any of these things were even remotely true, they wouldn't be on a magazine cover. It would be the lead story on the Evening News!
Now that doesn't mean that I doubt that Kathy lost 18 pounds in 13 days. I've never met Kathy. I have nothing against her. And as for the weight loss, I'm absolutely sure she did actually lose that much. But what it doesn't say is that Kathy most likely lost a lot in water weight, or (God forbid) maybe even some muscle mass.
The magazine does NOT tell you she lost 18 pounds of FAT. You just cannot lose fat that quickly, unless you have a tummy tuck or liposuction or do some other drastic reduction method.
But we see it and we WANT it to be true. I would love to know I could lose 18 pounds in under two weeks, instead of sweating it out over 9 weeks or longer. That sort of weight loss is a dream, and we'll happily pay billions every year to find the magic bullet that will instantly solve our weight problems.
I wish someone would sue the magazines for false advertising and making promises they can't keep. Think about it: at 259 pounds, even if I religiously did the one magazine's program, there is absolutely NO way on Earth I could have HOT LEGS in 6 days...unless they really mean that my legs would be overheated from all the exercise, which is likely what they would claim if I sued them!
What makes it worse is that, here in America, we live and die by that blasted scale. If the number is up, it's bad (unless you're like my ex-brother-in-law and struggle to gain even one pound...the jerk). If the number is down, it's good. And it's all-fair, no-foul when it comes to ways to getting that number to move downward. Some of us don't even care if it is water weight, so long as that number keeps getting lower.
So we try it all. Cabbage diets. Leek soup diets. All carbs, no carbs, Atkins, Mediterranean, Sonoma...they all work, briefly. And the faster the weight loss, the more likely it was simply water weight. Read the books by the doctors and obesity experts: you just cannot lose fat that fast. The best you can hope for is one to two pounds of fat per week for most people. Sometimes it's not even that.
On top of that, these plans work in the short term because if you severely restrict calories, as many do, you lose weight, but most people in America can't keep eating a special diet forever. Reality inevitably returns, and with it the old habits. If you're truly unlucky, you restricted calories so much (under 1200 or worse) that your body went into starvation mode, driving your metabolism into the tank. Then when you return to eating in your old amounts, your body won't use it like it once did, and you gain weight even faster.
I learned all this the hard way. I didn't wake up 259 pounds one morning. I dieted my way to that weight.
As a kid, I was healthy. I weighed a normal amount. I also discovered a love of candy that I still have to this day, and I discovered as I got older that I had more of a curvy body shape than the boyish shape that was in fashion at the time.
If only Jennifer Lopez was popular when I was a teenager, I would have been set for life!
Since I had a curvy body with hips and a shapely (read: not flat) back end, I was called "bubble butt" and worse by my so-called friends. So I started dieting. I'd lose weight, look great, then go back to normal eating. I'd gain back what I lost plus some, and diet some more. The same thing would happen--lose weight, look good, go back to normal, and bam--back up, plus more besides. I have been doing that since I was at least 16 years old, if not younger; that translates into more than 25 years of dieting.
If I had just known then that DIETS DON'T WORK, I would have saved myself the hassle.
Actually, from what I understand, "diet" wasn't originally a verb; it was a noun. As in this definition from dictionary.com:
"Diet (n): a particular selection of food, esp. as designed or prescribed to improve a person's physical condition or to prevent or treat a disease: a diet low in sugar."
A person trying to lose weight used to be told by their doctor to follow this particular diet, meaning selection of food. People then took that and turned it into, "My doctor has me on a diet," followed soon by "I am dieting."
Voila. Diet as a verb, and a whole institution is born.
If the various diet companies (who shall here remain nameless) really wanted us to lose the weight for good, they would have built into their Mission Statements the concept of becoming redundant. I firmly believe they like to see people succeed, but when all is said and done, it is all about the money. Always.
In their book, YOU: On a Diet: The Owner's Manual for Waist Management, Drs. Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen say this on page 10. (No, it is NOT a "Diet", despite the title.)
"Unless you're the rare kind of person who responds to dietary drill sergeants, you won't find long-term solutions using traditional weight-loss methods; willpower, deprivation, fads, phases or dead-bolting the lid of the butter pecan. Instead, using this plan, you will train yourself to never think about what you're eating, never think about getting on a diet or worry about coming off one, and never have to figure out formulas, zones, or for the love of (fill in the diety of your choice), place a chicken breast on a food scale." (Roizen, Michael and Oz, Mehmet. YOU: On a Diet. New York: Free Press, 2006).
I read their book cover-to-cover before I started trying to lose weight (notice I didn't say diet--I have never called this a diet, and I never will...more on that later). I am not quite where they say I should be yet. I never worry about what I'm eating, I never stick chicken breast on a scale, I NEVER think about going on a diet or coming off one, but I do think about how much I'm eating. This is because, after over 25 years' worth of dieting, I am not intuitive enough yet to be able to keep track of what I've eaten throughout the day without going overboard. I'm also not that great at always remembering to eat enough fruits and veggies unless I write it down and check back later.
I realize that, and it's OK. I'm not going to beat myself up about it, thinking "shoulda, woulda, coulda". I'm allowing myself to be gentle with ME; I've only changed my life in the past 8 months. It takes longer than that to grow a baby in the womb; I can allow myself at least that long to grow a whole new me.
Click here to go to Part II
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Disclaimer: Look, I'm not a doctor. However, I am a teacher certified in both California and Maine to teach science curriculum, including the human body (and health/nutrition) to kids in grades K-8. This blog is my attempt to wade through the current thinking on weight loss, and to present it in a way that makes sense to everyone. As a woman who is successfully recovering from obesity herself, I feel it's even more important to help others understand what I did to lose the weight; what worked, what didn't, and what the struggle has been like as I went from morbid obesity to fitness. It doesn't mean that I have all the answers, however. If you want to lose weight, by all means, read my blog--I think I can provide some help and clarity. BUT, please know that I am NOT a medical expert, and you should most definitely consult with your own doctor or family physician before undertaking any weight loss efforts yourself. Weight loss is a personal journey. I'm making mine visible to the world, but each of us has to take our own steps with our own doctor's guidance; please make sure you check in with yours before you try to do anything I have done. Good luck and God bless!
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