Are new year diets doomed to fail?

Did you know that an average person gains more weight for every diet they go on? As if that is not scary enough, when they lose weight, they lose muscle and fat. When they regain weight, they gain back all fat. And since muscles burn seven times as many calories as fat, their metabolism is slower than when they started the diet.
Nutritionists agree that most New Year diets do not work and that is why they advise people who want to lose weight to adopt a sound, sustainable eating plan not quick fixes.

Unrealistic
Diets often do not fit into normal life. Weighing and measuring food may help you lose weight, but is not practical as long-term strategies for most people. Dr Richard Muteguya a physician with a passion for nutrition, agrees that most New Year diets do not work. He says, “When a person goes on a diet, they make drastic changes that are unsustainable.”
Rather than making small, even incremental changes in lifestyle that can last a lifetime, most New Year diets encourage you to turn your life upside down for two weeks or so. Yet once those two weeks are over and you return to your old habits, guess what? Your body returns to its former state as well. Saying that you will change everything you are doing wrong in those weeks works for that time but it doesn’t change your underlying behaviour patterns.

Expense
“I have seen some people’s New Year’s diets and they include all these exotic foods and habits that are really costly; eat berries for breakfast, grapes for lunch, add some extra virgin olive oil, look for kale etc. You find that in the long run, one spends more on that food than they are used to. This of course is discouraging and that is why people avoid diets or just go off them before they are effective,” Dr Muteguya adds.
Deprivation
Most diets deprive dieters of food in order to create a calorie deficit and hence lose the weight leaving the person hungry and weak all the time. “…Because they do not provide enough energy for you to do your workouts and accomplish everything else you need to do in a day, they are a short-term solution at best,” he adds. This is especially true if you are following one of the ultra-low-carbohydrate diets that are so popular now. Carbohydrates are the primary energy source for physical activity, and decades of research have shown that low-carbohydrate diets do not adequately support strenuous physical activity for extended periods of time.

Wrong approach
Diet is only half of the equation. Lifetime weight management is not just about what you eat. It requires physical activity as well. Most people still believe that eating a low-fat diet will help them lose weight. The old idea that fat has nine calories per gram and carbohydrates four calories per gram led to the mistaken idea that if we cut out fat, we would lose weight.
Studies show that by eating more fat and less carbohydrates you can increase your metabolism by 300 calories a day (eating the same total calories a day). That is like getting the benefit of running for an hour a day without getting off the couch.

Help
There are reasons beyond your diet or amount of exercise that affect your weight and metabolism. Your body is a system and many things affect metabolism. The biggest hidden causes of weight grain or resistance to weight loss are the things that cause inflammation. And inflammation from anything that triggers weight gain by worsening insulin resistance.

Impulsive diets
Mugalu says health is not something that happens to you. It is something you have to plan, like a vacation or your retirement.
So, what can you do to lose weight safely and keep it off in the New Year? A great first step is to talk with a professional who can help you create a healthy eating plan that is sustainable and long term and can recommend the appropriate type and amount of exercise for you.

Focus
Going about it.
Dr Alex Mugalu, a surgeon at Mulago Hospital says many diets – even sensible ones – are difficult to maintain, and studies have shown that many people who follow them put the lost weight back on again within a year or so.
“Some calories make you fat, some calories make you thin. What we now know is that any foods that spike insulin (sugar, flour and even excess grains, fruit and beans) trigger a shift in your metabolism,” he says.

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