Diets Are Like Bellybuttons...

WARNING: This post contains a fair amount of sarcasm and even some derision. Read at your own risk.

It's a new year...which means it's time for everyone to hit the gym with fervor and start a new contrived diet plan. While this is great for various industries, this may not be good for you.

As the title implies, everyone has a diet plan these days from movie stars to fast food joints, all directed at you and your new years resolutions.

By now most people have seen the commercials for the Special K Challenge, a fancy title for a gimmicky crash diet. To join the challenge, you are instructed to eat 2 meals consisting solely of one serving of some Special K product: cereal, waffle, bar, etc. Your third meal you can eat "as you normally do." Then, you can choose two snacks from this appetizing list: protein bars, cereal bars, fruit crisps or protein water mixes. Yum! You are allowed to enjoy fruits and veggies as additional snacks...how thoughtful of them.

You may also have seen commercials for the Taco Bell Diet. Yes, I said the TACO BELL DIET. OMG. For this plan, you choose one of 6 fresco items (meaning no sauces and extra salsa) as your meal. The instructions beyond this are rather vague. Apparently one woman ate one thing from the fresco menu at meals (doesn't mention how often), and lost weight over a 2 year span. Congrats lady! Good luck keeping off the weight and warding off a host of health complications.

Why does this diet work? Because it is based on calorie restriction. Basically any and all diet plans revolve around calorie restriction. But some are worse than others. What do I consider a poor diet plan???

Markers of a Poor Diet Plan

• The plan revolves around a particular product or company, aka its a business/money making scheme. This includes the two plans mentioned above, along with Jenny Craig, LA Weight Loss, SlimFast, etc. The one exception is Weight Watchers, with a caveat. The WW plan itself isn't a poor diet plan because most of the remaining bullets do not pertain to it. However, this does not hold for the WW food items and products.
  
• The diet restricts choice. Telling someone they can only eat one of a handful of things at a meal usually isn't healthy and it leads to overeating or straying from the plan.
  
• It limits or focuses too much on certain nutrients (carbs, protein, fat, etc). Yes, the Atkins diet works (limits/eliminates carbs). It works because it is a form of calorie restriction. Its also one of the unhealthiest things you can force upon your body.
• The plan revolves around unhealthy food items such as tacos, processed bars, packaged meals, etc. By unhealthy I mean foods that are laden with saturated fat or cholesterol (although served in such a small serving its still a limited number of calories), lacking in vitamins and minerals, lacking in carbs, protein or fat (see previous bullet), packed with artificial ingredients and foods that don't really resemble food at all.
  
• Plans that demand extreme caloric restriction. While there is a time and a place for a medically supervised liquid diet, it should NOT be used to lose a few pounds or cleanse your colon. Similarly, fasts are a vital part of many religious practices and sometimes a medical necessity, but they should not be used as a diet plan. It's dangerous to eat too few calories. Plus, at a point, your body will go into starvation mode and hold onto extra fat for dear life. These plans will also make you hungry, cranky, and all around miserable.
• The plan omits or restricts fruits or veggies. This should be a no-brainer. But in my food service experience, I've had tons of people tell me they no longer eat fresh fruit or vegetables because their diet doesn't allow it. Come on people! If you want to be healthier and/or lose weight, you should be adding more F&V to your diet (although these should be fresh or frozen and not soaked in sugar or butter.)
  
• Finally, I consider a poor diet plan anything that is not sustainable as a permament lifestyle change. Could you really eat Special K or even Taco Bell every day for the rest of your life? Ewwwwww. When you consider a plan, consider whether you can maintain it long term....as in forever. I once heard a weight loss expert give a talk on diets and methods for helping people lose weight. He said that losing weight is the easy part. Pretty much any diet that restricts calories will do it if done correctly and you stick to it long enough. The problem is that a staggering number of people who lose weight gain it back. This is because they choose plans they can't maintain. And what's worse, every time you lose and gain, lose and gain, you put more stress on your body and set yourself up for more health complications.
  

Looking to lose weight in 2010? Here are some healthier suggestions:

• Do not follow a poor diet plan outlined above. If you aren't sure if yours is "poor", ask me.
• Do not impose new and strict rules upon yourself. Set a few realistic goals and slowly incorporate them into your lifestyle.
• But also set quantifiable goals. For example, plan to workout 3 times a week, limit yourself to one soda a day, try to eat a fruit at every meal, eat 2 servings of veggies at dinner, or set a specific and realistic weight loss goal such as 5% of your current weight.
  
• Cut back on calories, but in an intelligent manner. Limit your sodas or sugar intake. Watch your portions. Experiment with lighter versions of your favorite meals/recipes. Cut back on alcohol. Etc.
  
• Meet with a RD. It might be covered by insurance.
  

I'm always available for questions/suggestions/opinions/advice. Or, if you did not head the warning and you don't agree with this post and it's hefty helping of harshness, please contact me and we can discuss.