Weight Loss for Life
Ditch the Diet, Think Long Term

About Faddy Diets

As a nutritional therapist, I cringe inwardly when I hear what some people do to their bodies, in the name of losing weight. Let’s look at some of the well known diets, and I’ll tell you why they’re not a good idea.

Very Low Calorie Diets

These are bad, bad news for your body. Very low calorie diets work by restricting calories to below 1,000 per day, sometimes as low as 500. This is often achieved by using meal replacements, such as shakes, soups or drinks.

Apart from being a dull and highly unnatural way to feed your body, these diets basically starve your body, so it will reset its metabolic rate to protect itself against possible long term famine. When the dieter goes back to a ‘normal’ diet, having learned nothing about how to alter their eating habits long-term, they do so with a lower metabolic rate – and pile on the weight. The vicious cycle of yo-yo dieting begins!

High Protein/Low Carbohydrate

Again, bad news health-wise. Yes, these diets do achieve weight loss, but at what price?

In the short – term, people experience bad breath, lack of energy, constipation, clear messages from the body that’s it’s not happy with what you’re doing to it.

Long–term effects are unclear (probably because few stick to such a regime long–term) but would probably include kidney, bowel and heart problems. A high price to pay for getting slim. Remember, the body is designed to run on complex carbohydrates as its preferred energy source. Tinker with Mother Nature, and you’re asking for trouble.

Mono–diets

These diets are not so fashionable at the moment, thank goodness! They work by the suffering dieter eating nothing but grapefruit for 3 days, or eggs and tomatoes for a week or some other restrictive regime.

Apart from the boredom such diets induce, they are nutritionally unbalanced and won’t provide your body with the wide range of nutrients that it needs. And let’s not say anything about the suffering housemates after you’ve been on an egg only diet!

And once again there is the usual problem of putting weight back on once you return to your old ways of eating.

No fat diets

Your body needs fat in the diet. It does not need a lot of it and it needs to be of the right kind, but it’s unfortunate that fat has acquired such a bad reputation.

I’ve heard of people who cut out all fat from their diet. Very soon their skin is in a terrible, dry state and they can’t think straight, it’s a cruel way to treat the body.

Slimming pills and weight loss aids

Often touted as miracle cures, the fact is that many of these pills are expensive and just don’t work. Some are actually believed to be dangerous, as well – ones containing Chitosan, for example, could cause deficiencies in certain vitamins and essential fats.

The sad fact is that you won’t lose weight just by taking a pill – as always, it comes back to there being no substitute for a permanent change in your attitude to food and dieting.

A long–term way of life

So, how is what I’m proposing different?

Because it does away with the problems outlined in “Why Diets Don’t Work”. This is a plan that does away with deprivation, feeling unable to socialise with your friends… and concentrates on changing the way that you think about food and health.

It’s a long–term plan, aiming at teaching you how to lose weight safely and steadily, whilst re educating your taste buds and teaching you how slim people stay slim…for life. No more yo-yo dieting. No more feeling tired or excluded from your own social life. Instead, you will feel energised; you’ll be eating delicious food that you’ll love, and maintaining a slim, healthy body, for good.

Once you learn about nutrition and change the way that you eat, you’ll start the process of changing permanently your attitude towards food.

Have you seen the excellent Channel 4 series “You Are What You Eat” with Gillian McKeith?

All the people involved started out with terrible eating habits. They loved fatty, sugary, unhealthy junk foods, and scorned fresh, healthy foods. Fruit and vegetables just didn’t figure in their daily menus. Where they did do well, however, was being prepared to change their ways and try Dr McKeith’s advice. Within just 8 weeks, they all lost a lot of weight, and just as importantly, their health benefited enormously.

Energy levels soared; premenstrual problems vanished, as did constipation and other health issues. All of the participants said that they could never go back to their old way of eating – for them, such greasy, sugary food had lost all its appeal. They now enjoyed fresh, healthy foods, and were delighted at the radical changes in their health. And all that happened in just 8 weeks. A bonus for them was the reduction in their food bills – instead of buying expensive convenience foods and takeaways, they now spent less on fresh, wholesome food that was cheaper because it hadn’t been pre – packaged.

I’m sure you’ve seen the principle here yourself.

Who doesn’t know somebody who used to drink tea or coffee with several sugars and swore that they just couldn’t drink it any other way? Eventually, they decided to reduce their sugar in hot drinks, until eventually they got to zero…and then couldn’t stomach the thought of sugar in tea or coffee at all. Their taste buds had been re–educated and a permanent change had taken place.

Just like these people,  just like Dr McKeith’s volunteers, such a change can happen to YOU. You just have to make the commitment to making that change, and stick with the process while it takes place.

The alternative is yo-yo dieting, failure, frustration, and damage to your health.

The choice seems clear.

Don’t worry that changing your eating habits will mean more hours spent in the kitchen preparing complicated recipes, or the end of eating out with friends. We’ll be seeing in future instalments how quick and simple healthy eating can be, and how to choose wisely from restaurant menus. And no, you won’t have to eat lots of lettuce!

The benefits of being slim

“I know the benefits” I can hear you say. “I’ll look good on the beach…I’ll be able to fit into smaller clothes…” Yes, of course being slim means all that. But there’s more, and I think it will appeal to you, as the kind of person who visits the Fiona Harrold website. Think about it. The website is for people who want to get the most out of life, who want to change, make more of themselves, and do more. It’s for dynamic people.

To live life like that you need energy and vitality. If you’re struggling with excess weight, it’s unlikely that you have that kind of vigour, get up and go, call it what you will, or at any rate, enough of it. Excess kilos are usually a result of unhealthy eating habits, and those tend to lead to nutrient deficiencies, which lead to lack of energy and health problems. So you end up not having the oomph! to really make your life the best it can be.

What will motivate YOU?

I know what motivates me to stay slim – it’s respect for my body. It’s the only one I’ll ever have, and I want to treat it well; to maintain a healthy weight, to feed it properly, not starve it with low calorie diets or diets that deprive it of the nutrients it needs. I want a healthy slim body that functions well – so I can lead the full life that I want. What will be YOUR motivating factor?

It may be the same as mine. It may be entirely different. Perhaps you have a dream of taking a year out and travelling round the world, but you know that there’s no way you’d be able to haul a rucksack around in tropical heat whilst carrying excess weight as well. It may be the fear factor. Is there a history of heart disease or diabetes in your family, and would you like to reduce your risk of getting such serious conditions?

Guidance for safe and steady weight loss

To be safe, effective and permanent, weight loss leads to be slow and steady. Be gentle with your body! The tables below give guidance as to what is a healthy weight range for your height.

Ideal Body Weight for Women

Ideal Body Weight for Men

Look up your height and determine what weight range you fall into.

If you’re small framed, aim towards the lower end of the range, and vice versa. Determine your goal weight from this. You now know how much weight you are aiming to lose – the difference between what you weigh now, and the goal weight that you’ll achieve.

Work out this difference in pounds or kilos.

Actions of the Week

1. Commit yourself to long term change

Resolve to ditch the faddy diets for good and to treat your body with respect. Remember that your taste buds can and will alter.

2. Let’s decide on a time scale

Your aim is to lose weight slowly and surely – aim for about 1 kilo or 2 pounds per week. Divide the difference calculated above by this amount and you’ll have a target to aim for and a time scale in which to complete your weight loss. For example, if you have 10 kilos to lose, aim to achieve that in 10 weeks, being 1 kilo per week. Obviously losing weight isn’t an exact science and some weeks you may lose more, some weeks less. Just keep in mind the overall goal.

3. Create a simple way of recording your goal and your progress

For some people, this may be via a calendar or diary. Others may create a spreadsheet. It’s whatever works best for you. I encourage you to use a way that you can either carry with you or have visible, so that you can remind yourself of your goal, and see your progress towards it.

4. Remember the section above about what motivates YOU?

Spend some time thinking about this one. Whatever your motivating factor, write it in large letters on your progress chart, to keep you focused. Phrase it in a positive way – e.g. rather than saying “I don’t want to get heart disease like my mother”, say “I want to keep my heart and my body healthy”. Focus on the positive, not the negative.

5. Treat yourself!

Think of some ways to reward yourself as you achieve your weekly weight loss targets, that aren’t food based. A trip to the cinema, a new lipstick…whatever you fancy. You’ve earned it!