America is not winning the battle on weight loss. Obesity and overweight populations are here to stay, and growing too. Childhood obesity is still on the rise, diabetes is almost fashion, this generation of Americans are the first in history expected not to out-live their predecessors, according to recent surveys. After years of obsessing about weight loss, shunning high-fat foods and then high-carb foods, one weight loss diet craze after another, one magic weight loss supplement after another, surgical procedures after surgical procedures, Americans are giving up.
How & why
Weight loss diets fail
A 2008 American Dietetic Association survey of nearly 800 adults found that 79% said they are not doing more to improve their diets because they are satisfied with the way they eat; 73% said it is because they don’t want to give up their favorite foods. Fewer people are on weight loss diets.
I don’t blame them, weight loss diets are for movie stars. Movie stars, because after they lose weight to shoot a movie, they can go on regaining their normal weights! Weight loss diets are designed to be temporal. How else can they make their money?! Many dieters have given in to the latest weight loss diet that promises fast results, and as soon as they go off the diet, they regain the lost weight, and then some!
Weight loss diets, at best, deliver only temporal results. This is partly because they focus on weight loss instead of weight management. A plan or “diet” that delivers lasting results is what is worthwhile. Dr. Michael Dansinger, physician for the NBC reality show The Biggest Loser, agrees when he said “…if your weight loss plan is not sustainable for the long term, it’s not worth following”.
A healthy lifestyle is what America should seek, not a short term program. Managing your weight, not loosing and gaining year in year out. See sustainable weight loss tips on our tips page.
There are three pillars of weight management: weight gain, weight loss, and ideal weight (or weight maintenance). Too much emphasis has been laid on weight loss. Some people looking to gain weight are at a total loss when it comes to shopping for good advise. It is like looking for regular yogurt amidst the “fat-free” and “low fat” bunch that flood grocery stores.
On the flip side, those looking to lose weight should first consider too things:
1. Do you need to lose weight? On average, you only need to lose weight if you gained more than 10 pounds in a four-month period. This brings us to the second aspect:
2. If you need to loose a few pounds, you have to pin point where the extra pounds came from. See a few weight gain sources here.
An ideal body weight is most desirable. Not everyone can be skinny, or look like they have never taken a week off of a fitness program. There are no set weights written in stone for everyone a certain age or gender. We all have our ideal weights. Age and gender in harmony with weight, producing a thriving health.
Your ideal weight is the weight you attain and maintain with considerable amount of ease. Translation: the weight where you find good health and vitality, and do not gain or lose more than three pounds per year, without trying. Under normal (consistent healthful practices) circumstances, no adult should gain more than 15 to 30 pounds in a 10 year period. That is an average of 1.5 to 3lbs per year. Child bearing women and people with certain medical challenges, are however, exceptions.
Remember when you were a teenager, and you use to eat all kinds of junk food in sight and still did not gain weight? When you were full of energy and it was not as difficult as it is now to get up from bed?! Everything was beautiful, no love handles, no double chin, no knee pain or backache! Take your weight then, if you can remember! Add three pounds per year for men, and five pounds for women. That should be your target weight now (+ or -10lbs).
Thirty years ago how much did you weigh? How about 20 years ago? Ten years ago? Five? This year, now, how much do you weigh? If you have gained more than 10lbs from five years ago, you may need to lose some weight to find your ideal weight. That is weight management.