Gourmet Without Guilt

Diet is defined as a prescribed selection of foods or the act of restricting food intake.  However this definition has only become common in the past couple of decades.  Prior to that diet was commonly considered to be the nutritional intake were the sum of food consumed by a person or an organism.  To this day the term “diet” in veterinarian medicine refers to the type of food a particular animal eats and not the act of restricting food for that animal.

However, over the past several decades the term “diets” or “dieting” has come to mean the act of restricting caloric intake with the ultimate goal of losing weight.  Initially, this terminology and thought process was believed to be a positive movement toward a successful goal.  As time progressed and more and more research was done on the psychology of weight loss as well and as the physiology researchers have come to understand that it is not beneficial for us to significantly change our dietary intake for a short period of time with the express purpose of weight loss.

This means that dietary intake which changes for a few short days, weeks or months is not an appropriate way of considering weight loss. Instead, researchers now advocate that individuals should consider nutritional changes which are consistent and permanent in their dietary intake and not major changes which are used specifically for weight loss.

Researchers who have studied the psychology of weight loss have found that individuals who massively change their dietary intake in order to lose weight are not often successful because of the challenges that this produces in their daily lives.  Instant and massive dietary changes often produce feelings of restriction and deprivation.  This leads an individual into believing that they can “sheet” for just a short period of time which then leads to a person who completely leaves this eating habit and goes back to the way things were before.

Massively changing dietary intake can also lead to yo-yo dieting.  This is a process in which an individual loses weight by significantly reducing their caloric intake or changing the way in which they are eating almost instantaneously.  They lose a portion of the weight they want to but then go back to their original eating habits.  This results in a significant weight gain that goes beyond the initial weight loss they already experienced.  This means that the individual will lose 5 pounds but gained back seven, or more significantly, lose 20 pounds but gained back 30.

This yo-yo dieting also leads to feelings of depression and frustration.  Individuals them do not believe that they are able to lose weight or will ever be successful in achieving the weight loss they desire.

Instead, researchers have found that by making small changes to dietary habits over the long haul many individuals are able to make massive changes in their weight gain and weight loss, achieving the goals they desire.  This means, that instead of instantly removing soda, candy, cakes, pasta and bread from the diet individuals should first remove soda and substitute it with water.  After achieving this new habit for six to eight weeks it is then saved to begin substituting other items out of the diet.

This process helps an individual to reduce the amount of calories they eat per day which can be coupled with an increasing amount of exercise that burns more calories.  The combination of eating less calories and burning more often leads to significant weight loss that is achieved over a long period of time and not instantaneous weight loss that we all desire at one time or another.

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