Brink Zone
Most people who read my articles and e-books know me as a science
guy who likes to quote studies and apply research to everyday
problems such as weight loss, bodybuilding, and other
health/fitness related topics. However, sometimes you have to
step back from the science and look at the big picture to help
bring people back into focus, so they can see the forest for the
trees, so to speak.
For most people reading this article, finding an effective diet
that works most of the time must seem as complicated as nuclear
physics. It's not, but there are a bewildering number of choices
for diets out there. High fat or no fat? High carbohydrate or no
carbohydrate? Low protein or high protein? To make matters worse,
there are a million variations and combinations to the above diet
scenarios to add to the confusion. It seems endless and causes
many people to throw up their hands in frustration and give up.
In this article I will attempt to change all that.
There are some general guidelines, rules of thumb, and ways of
viewing a diet program that will allow you to decide, once and
for all, if it's the right diet for you. You may not always like
what I have to say, and you should be under no illusions this is
another quick fix, "lose 100 lbs. in 20 days," guide of some
sort. However, if you are sick and tired of being confused, tired
of taking the weight off only to put it back on, and tired of
wondering how to take the first steps to deciding the right diet
for you that will result in permanent weight loss, then this is
the article that could change your life...
Do you need to be a scientist to apply what you will learn here?
No. A mind reader or clairvoyant? No. A nutritionist or medical
doctor? Not at all. What you need to be is open-minded and
willing to learn a few key concepts that will allow you to sort
through the confusion.
You will be able to apply what you learn here to any diet you are
considering and decide if it makes sense, once and for all! The
process, however, is neither easy nor quick per se, but I never
promised you either of those things...
This article does not look at specific diets but will teach you
to take a logical approach and apply some common sense to
choosing a nutritional plan for life long weight loss. If you are
willing and able to make a paradigm shift, then let's proceed.
Does your diet pass "The Test"?
What is the number one reason diets fail long term; above all
else? The number one reason is...drum roll...a lack of long term
compliance. The numbers don't lie; the vast majority of people
who lose weight will regain it - and often exceed what they lost.
You knew that already didn't you?
Yet, what are you doing to avoid it? Here's another reality
check: virtually any diet you pick which follows the basic
concept of "burning" more calories then you consume - the well
accepted "calories in calories out" mantra - will cause you to
lose weight. To some degree, they all work: Atkins-style, no carb
diets, low fat high carb diets, all manner of fad diets - it
simply does not matter in the short term.
If your goal is to lose some weight quickly, then pick one and
follow it. I guarantee you will lose some weight. Studies
generally find any of the commercial weight loss diets will get
approximately the same amount of weight off after 6 months to a
year. For example, a recent study found the Atkins' Diet,
Slim-Fast plan, Weight Watchers Pure Points program, and Rosemary
Conley's Eat Yourself Slim diet, were all equally effective.
(1)
Other studies comparing other popular diets have come to
essentially the same conclusions. For example, a study that
compared the Atkins diet, the Ornish diet, Weight Watchers, and
The Zone Diet, found them to be essentially the same in their
ability to take weight off after one year. (2)
Recall what I said about the number one reason diets fail, which
is a lack of compliance. The lead researcher of this recent study
stated:
"Our trial found that adherence level rather than diet type was
the primary predictor of weight loss"(3)
Translated, it's not which diet they chose per se, but their
ability to actually stick to a diet that predicted their weight
loss success. I can just see the hands going up now, "but Will,
some diets must be better than others, right?" Are some diets
better then others? Absolutely. Some diets are healthier then
others, some diets are better at preserving lean body mass, some
diets are better at suppressing appetite - there are many
differences between diets. However, while most of the popular
diets will work for taking weight off, what is abundantly clear
is that adhering to the diet is the most important aspect for
keeping the weight off long term.
What is a diet?
A diet is a short term strategy to lose weight. Long term weight
loss is the result of an alteration in lifestyle. We are
concerned with life long weight management, not quick fix weight
loss here. I don't like the term diet, as it represents a short
term attempt to lose weight vs. a change in lifestyle. Want to
lose a bunch of weight quickly? Heck, I will give you the
information on how to do that here and now for no charge.
For the next 90 to 120 days eat 12 scrambled egg whites, one
whole grapefruit, and a gallon of water twice a day. You will
lose plenty of weight. Will it be healthy? Nope. Will the weight
stay off once you are done with this diet and are then forced to
go back to your "normal" way of eating? Not a chance. Will the
weight you lose come from fat or will it be muscle, water, bone,
and (hopefully!) some fat? The point being, there are many diets
out there that are perfectly capable of getting weight off you,
but when considering any eating plan designed to lose weight, you
must ask yourself:
"Is this a way of eating I can follow long term?"
Which brings me to my test: I call it the "Can I eat that way for
the rest of my life?" Test. I know, it does not exactly roll off
your tongue, but it gets the point across.
The lesson here is: any nutritional plan you pick to lose weight
must be part of a lifestyle change you will be able to follow -
in one form or another - forever. That is, if it's not a way of
eating you can comply with indefinitely, even after you get to
your target weight, then it's worthless.
Thus, many fad diets you see out there are immediately
eliminated, and you don't have to worry about them. The question
is not whether the diet is effective in the short term, but if
the diet can be followed indefinitely as a lifelong way of
eating. Going from "their" way of eating back to "your" way of
eating after you reach your target weight is a recipe for
disaster and the cause of the well established yo-yo dieting
syndrome. Bottom line: there are no short cuts, there is no free
lunch, and only a commitment to a lifestyle change is going to
keep the fat off long term. I realize that's not what most
people want to hear, but it's the truth, like it or not.
The statistics don't lie: getting the weight off is not the
hardest part, keeping the weight off is! If you take a close look
at the many well known fad/commercial diets out there, and you
are honest with yourself, and apply my test above, you will find
most of them no longer appeal to you as they once did. It also
brings me to an example that adds additional clarity: If you have
diet A that will cause the most weight loss in the shortest
amount of time but is unbalanced and essentially impossible to
follow long term vs. diet B, which will take the weight off at a
slower pace, but is easier to follow, balanced, healthy, and
something you can comply with year after year, which is superior?
If diet A gets 30 lbs off you in 30 days, but by next year you
have gained back all 30 lbs, but diet B gets 20 lbs off you in
the next 3 months with another 20 lbs 3 months after that and the
weight stays off by the end of that year, which is the better
diet?
If you don't know the answer to those questions, you have
totally missed the point of this article and the lesson it's
trying to teach you, and are set up for failure. Go back and read
this section again... By default, diet B is superior.
Teach a man to Fish...
A well known Chinese Proverb is;
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish
and you feed him for a lifetime.
This expression fits perfectly with the next essential step in
how to decide what eating plan you should follow to lose weight
permanently. Will the diet plan you are considering teach you how
to eat long term, or does it spoon-feed you information? Will the
diet rely on special bars, shakes, supplements or pre-made foods
they supply?
Let's do another diet A vs. diet B comparison. Diet A is going
to supply you with their foods, as well as their special drink or
bars to eat, and tell you exactly when to eat them. You will lose
- say - 30 lbs in two months. Diet B is going to attempt to help
you learn which foods you should eat, how many calories you need
to eat, why you need to eat them, and generally attempt to help
teach you how to eat as part of a total lifestyle change that
will allow you to make informed decisions about your nutrition.
Diet B causes a slow steady weight loss of 8-10 lbs per month for
the next 6 months and the weight stays off because you now know
how to eat properly.
Recall the Chinese proverb. Both diets will assist you to lose
weight. Only one diet, however, will teach you how to be
self-reliant after your experience is over. Diet A is easier, to
be sure, and causes faster weight loss than diet B, and diet B
takes longer and requires some thinking and learning on your
part. However, when diet A is over, you are right back where you
started and have been given no skills to fish. Diet companies
don't make their profits by teaching you to fish, they make
their money by handing you a fish so you must rely on them
indefinitely or come back to them after you gain all the weight
back.
Thus, diet B is superior for allowing you to succeed where other
diets failed, with knowledge gained that you can apply long term.
Diet programs that attempt to spoon feed you a diet without any
attempt to teach you how to eat without their help and/or rely on
their shakes, bars, cookies, or pre-made foods, is another diet
you can eliminate from your list of choices.
Diet plans that offer weight loss by drinking their product for
several meals followed by a "sensible dinner;" diets that allow
you to eat their special cookies for most meals along with their
pre-planned menu; or diets that attempt to have you eating their
bars, drink, or pre-made meals, are of the diet A variety covered
above. They're easy to follow but destined for failure, long
term. They all fail the "Can I eat that way for the rest of my
life?" test, unless you really think you can eat cookies and
shakes for the rest of your life...Bottom line here is, if the
nutritional approach you use to lose weight, be it from a book, a
class, a clinic, or an e-book, does not teach you how to eat,
it's a loser for long term weight loss and it should be
avoided.
The missing link for long term weight loss
We now make our way to another test to help you choose a
nutrition program for long term weight loss, and it does not
actually involve nutrition. The missing link for long term weight
loss is exercise. Exercise is the essential component of long
term weight loss. Many diet programs do not contain an exercise
component, which means they are losers for long term weight loss
from the very start. Any program that has its focus on weight
loss but does not include a comprehensive exercise plan is like
buying a car without tires, or a plane without wings. People who
have successfully kept the weight off overwhelmingly have
incorporated exercise into their lives, and the studies that look
at people who have successfully lost weight and kept it off
invariably find these people were consistent with their diet and
exercise plans. (4)
I am not going to list all the benefits of regular exercise here,
but regular exercise has positive effects on your metabolism,
allows you to eat more calories yet still be in a calorie
deficit, and can help preserve lean body mass (LBM) which is
essential to your health and metabolism. The many health benefits
of regular exercise are well known, so I won't bother adding
them here. The bottom line here is, (a) if you have any
intentions of getting the most from your goal of losing weight
and (b) plan to keep it off long term, regular exercise must be
an integral part of the weight loss strategy. So, you can
eliminate any program, be it book, e-book, clinic, etc. that does
not offer you direction and help with this essential part of long
term weight loss.
Side Bar: A quick note on exercise:
Any exercise is better than no exercise. However, like diet
plans, not all exercise is created equal, and many people often
choose the wrong form of exercise to maximize their efforts to
lose weight. For example, they will do aerobics exclusively and
ignore resistance training. Resistance training is an essential
component of fat loss, as it builds muscle essential to your
metabolism, increases 24 hour energy expenditure, and has health
benefits beyond aerobics.
The reader will also note I said fat loss above not weight loss.
Though I use the term 'weight loss' throughout this article, I
do so only because it is a familiar term most people understand.
However, the true focus and goal of a properly set up nutrition
and exercise plan should be on fat loss, not weight loss. A focus
on losing weight, which may include a loss essential muscle,
water, and even bone, as well as fat, is the wrong approach.
Losing the fat and keeping the all important lean body mass
(LBM), is the goal, and the method for achieving that can be
found in my ebook(s) on the topic, and is beyond the scope of
this article. Bottom line: the type of exercise, intensity of
that exercise, length of time doing that exercise, etc., are
essential variables here when attempting to lose FAT while
retaining (LBM).
Psychology 101 of long term weight loss
Many diet programs out there don't address the psychological
aspect of why people fail to be successful with long term weight
loss. However, quite a few studies exist that have looked at just
that. In many respects, the psychological aspect is the most
important for long term weight loss, and probably the most
underappreciated component.
Studies that compare the psychological characteristics of people
who have successfully kept the weight off to people who have
regained the weight, see clear differences between these two
groups. For example, one study that looked at 28 obese women who
had lost weight but regained the weight that they had lost,
compared to 28 formerly obese women who had lost weight and
maintained their weight for at least one year and 20 women with a
stable weight in the healthy range, found the women who regained
the weight:
* Had a tendency to evaluate self-worth in terms of weight and
shape
* Had a lack of vigilance with regard to weight control
* had a dichotomous (black-and-white) thinking style
* Had the tendency to use eating to regulate mood.
The researchers concluded:
"The results suggest that psychological factors may provide some
explanation as to why many people with obesity regain weight
following successful weight loss."
This particular study was done on women, so it reflects some of
the specific psychological issues women have - but make no
mistake here - men also have their own psychological issues that
can sabotage their long term weight loss efforts. (6)
Additional studies on men and women find psychological
characteristics such as "having unrealistic weight goals, poor
coping or problem-solving skills and low self-efficacy" often
predict failure with long term weight loss. (7) On the other
hand, psychological traits common to people who experienced
successful long term weight loss include "...an internal
motivation to lose weight, social support, better coping
strategies and ability to handle life stress, self-efficacy,
autonomy, assuming responsibility in life, and overall more
psychological strength and stability." (8)
The main point of this section is to illustrate that psychology
plays a major role in determining if people are successful with
long term weight loss. If it's not addressed as part of the
overall plan, it can be the factor that makes or breaks your
success. This, however, is not an area most nutrition programs
can adequately tackle and should not be expected to. However, the
better programs do generally attempt to help with motivation,
goal setting, and support. If you see yourself in the above lists
from the groups that failed to maintain their weight long term,
then know you will need to address those issues via counseling,
support groups, etc. Don't expect any weight loss program to
cover this topic adequately but do look for programs that attempt
to offer support, goal setting, and resources that will keep you
on track.
"There's a sucker born every minute"
So why don't you see this type of honest information about the
realities of long term weight loss more often? Let's be honest
here, telling the truth is not the best way to sell bars, shakes,
books, supplements, and programs. Hell, if by some miracle
everyone who read this article actually followed it, and sent it
on to millions of other people who actually followed it, makers
of said products could be in financial trouble quickly. However,
they also know - as the man said - "there's a sucker born every
minute," so I doubt they will be kept up at night worrying about
the effects that I, or this article, will have on their
business.
So let's recap what has been learned here: the big picture
realities of permanent weight loss and how you can look at a
weight loss program and decide for yourself if it's for you
based on what has been covered above:
* Permanent weight loss is not about finding a quick fix diet,
but making a commitment to life style changes that include
nutrition and exercise
* Any weight loss program you choose must pass the "Can I eat
that way for the rest of my life?" test,
* The weight loss program you choose should ultimately teach you
how to eat and be self reliant so you can make informed long term
choices about your nutrition.
* The weight loss program you choose should not leave you
reliant on commercial bars, shakes, supplements, or pre-made
foods, for your long term success.
* The weight loss program you choose must have an effective
exercise component.
* The weight loss program you choose should attempt to help with
motivation, goal setting, and support, but can't be a
replacement for psychological counseling if needed.
Conclusion
I want to take this final section to add some additional points
and clarity. For starters, the above advice is not for everyone.
It's not intended for those who really have their nutrition
dialed in, such as competitive bodybuilders and other athletes
who benefit from fairly dramatic changes in their nutrition, such
as 'off season' and 'pre-contest' and so on.
The article is also not intended for those with medical issues
who may be on a specific diet to treat or manage a specific
medical condition. The article is intended for the average person
who wants to get off the Yo-Yo diet merry-go-round once and for
all. As that's probably 99% of the population, it will cover
millions of people.
People should also not be scared off by my "you have to eat this
way forever" advice. This does not mean you will be dieting for
the rest of your life and have nothing but starvation to look
forward to. What it does mean, however, is you will have to learn
to eat properly even after you reach your target weight and that
way of eating should not be a huge departure from how you ate to
lose the weight in the first place. Once you get to your target
weight - and or your target bodyfat levels - you will go onto a
maintenance phase which generally has more calories and choices
of food, even the occasional treat, like a slice of pizza or
whatever.
Maintenance diets are a logical extension of the diet you used to
lose the weight, but they are not based on the diet you followed
that put the weight on in the first place!
Regardless of which program you choose, use the above 'big
picture' approach which will keep you on track for long term
weight loss. See you in the gym!
References
(1) Truby H, et al. Randomised controlled trial of four
commercial weight loss programmes in the UK: initial findings
from the BBC "diet trials" BMJ 2006;332:1309-1314 (3 June),
(2) Michael D., et al, Comparison of the Atkins, Ornish, Weight
Watchers, and Zone Diets for Weight Loss and Heart Disease Risk
Reduction. A Randomized Trial. JAMA. 2005;293:43-53.
(3) Comparison of Diets for Weight Loss and Heart Disease Risk
Reduction-Reply. Michael Dansinger. JAMA. 2005;293:1590-1591.
(4) Kruger J. et al. Dietary and physical activity behaviors
among adults successful at weight loss maintenance. International
Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 2006, 3:17
doi:10.1186/1479-5868-3-17
(5) Byrne S, et al. Weight maintenance and relapse in obesity: a
qualitative study. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2003
Aug;27(8):955-62.
(6) Borg P, et al. Food selection and eating behaviour during
weight maintenance intervention and 2-y follow-up in obese
men.Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2004 Dec;28(12):1548-54.
(7) Byrne SM. Psychological aspects of weight maintenance and
relapse in obesity. J Psychosom Res. 2002 Nov;53(5):1029-36.
(8) Elfhag K, et al. Who succeeds in maintaining weight loss? A
conceptual review of factors associated with weight loss
maintenance and weight regain. Obes Rev. 2005 Feb;6(1):67-85
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Will Brink is a best selling author and columnist for various
health, fitness, medical And bodybuilding publications. His
articles relating to nutrition, supplements, weight loss,
exercise and medicine can be found in such publications as
Lets Live, Muscle Media 2000, MuscleMag International, The
Life Extension Magazine, Muscle n Fitness, Inside Karate,
Exercise For Men Only, Body International, Power, Oxygen,
Penthouse, Women's World and The Townsend Letter For Doctors.
You can read many more free articles and more about
Will Brink at his website here: http://www.brinkzone.com
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