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Mar 6

Why fad diets don’t work – Khaleej Times – Khaleej Times

Diets that Work Comments Off on Why fad diets don’t work – Khaleej Times – Khaleej Times

If any of the several diets you read about, or worse still followed, worked, you wouldn't have to go on another diet ever again. Or to be clear, you could go on another round of the same diet. It's a little like looking for a cure for baldness. If it worked, then there wouldn't be so many silver bullet options advertised on billboards and in the newspapers. The competition is fierce and the cures are constantly churned out by the sellers of snake oil. We have come a long way but beyond the fancy explanations is the simple formula: Calories in, calories out. It's deliciously simple and doesn't require you to completely eliminate any food groups from your diet.

The question "Do you want fries with that?" seems to have become redundant in Dubai. Everything that could be served with fries is served with fries. You often cannot upsize your burger, but you can upsize your order of fries and your drink of choice. Cooking potatoes at the temperature in a deep fryer means that the fries you consume could be harmful. Starch undergoes deleterious changes at that temperature. But now there's a healthier option which is air fryers. There are already restaurants that serve air fried chips. What makes shallow frying difficult in restaurants is the sheer volume of orders to be handled. To spend time over fries as they cook slowly will take both time and effort as opposed to the ease of using a deep fryer to cook them in minutes. At some fast food joints you can replace your salad with a proportionate order of fries.

There are lunch deals and there are promotions at restaurants. You get a good deal but you're often consuming a whole lot of salt and fat. As a fast food fan myself, I don't mean to preach. I may just have to temper my views with the warning, "Do as I say and not as I do." But it's common in the dieting universe to know what's bad for you and eat it anyway. But you could wake up one morning and decide that you aren't going to punish your body anymore and actually listen to yourself. It has been said that we should take the advice that we give others. The advice that you should have been taken years ago yourself and that you still hand out unasked to anyone who broaches the subject of weight loss.

And what does this digression have to do with fad diets? Everything in all possible ways in all possible universes. It's important that we get out of the panacea mentality.

"Stay away from carrots and you'll be fine," said nobody ever. But does it make sense at all to vilify one food group and place the others on a pedestal? Or does taking a diet completely out of context and continent show great wisdom? It would be like reading a book about running a company in the US of A and then seeking to apply the insights to running a company in Dubai.

To return to the central point of this diatribe, watch what goes into your mouth and how much of it does. Also have as accurate an idea of how much exercise you would need to do to burn the calories you have eaten. Leave the obfuscating and the detoxing to the creators of fad diets. Some of them have gone bankrupt; others have become yesterday's news and adorn the racks of second-hand books stores everywhere. Oh, what tales they would tell, if they could, of failed diets and years of frustration.

The tragedy of fad diets is you have people going on different diets for decades. And at the end of these diets they are not sufficiently healthier to justify the hardship that they went through. It paints a sad picture of the human race if so many people are utterly miserable for so many years of their lives. Extreme diets and even moderate diets make you hungry, irritable and tired. If you lived in isolation then it wouldn't be a problem. But if you've got to be around people, accomplish things and be an adult, a diet can give you a nasty temper. That's something that won't endear you to anyone at all.

Of course, there's the school of thought that says you need to suffer. The championing of suffering is a trope in a lot of discussions on pretty much any endeavour. Make sure that you listen and you listen well to all well-meaning souls. Or better still just humour them. You know your life and your problems better than anybody else. When it comes to fitness, one size doesn't fit all. Another uncomfortable truth is that if you really want to lose weight, you will have to make lifestyle changes. Simple cosmetic or category changes will get you only so far as nowhere. That's the challenge: Changing your lifestyle. And to reiterate the painful truth: Calories in, calories out.

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