do you bant?

Diet, diet, diet. That's the one thing that makes or breaks any effort to lose weight. Countless regime has been formulated and all carried their own promises of making you into a lean and slender, magazine cover material.

The Internet is saturated with fad diet entries, that a google search of the words fad+diet will return 5.5million, and believe me, it is still growing at exponential rate! Fad diets are defined as "a nutritional regimen, generally of an extreme nature, intended to produce results more quickly than a traditional diet-exercise combination; often of a dubious nature." (Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing © Farlex 2012)

In 1974, an article in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (Food Faddism: a challenge to nutritionists and dietitians by McBean and Speckmann) listed 3 categories of food fads:

1. A particular food or food group is exaggerated and purported to cure specific diseases.
2. Foods are eliminated from an individual’s diet because they are viewed as harmful.
3. An emphasis is placed on eating certain foods to express a particular lifestyle.

Food fads might have gotten more popular in the recent 50 years or so, but the first documented fad diet was evident from as early as the mid 19th Century, when a man called William Banting printed his weight-loss success with a regime of diet that limited intake of refined and easily digestible carbohydrates. The pamphletes were so popular, it was reprinted several times and the question "Do you bant?" was the rave of the moment, equivalent to our modern day "Are you following a Diet?"

While some researches conclude that low-carbohydrate diets are a "feasible alternative recommendation for weight loss", restrictive diet programmes for weight reduction by food groups restrictions are never meant as a life-long adjustments to the way we eat. Instead, there are a few other factors we may need to consider adjusting, not just the type of food alone:

1. The portion size of a meal
2. The timing of a meal

Some of us might have picked up the habit of looking at the nutritional table of food products, take a glance at the calories column and judge whether or not it justifies itself for consumption. A quick glance at a caramelized popcorn box, shows 122kcal per serving. Harmless, you'd think, 10 minutes run at 7km/h on the treadmill will take care of that. But one may overlook the fact that a standard portion for popcorn sold at the cinema is 85 oz, not 1 oz.

Here are some examples of healthy portion size, taken from WebMD:

• A cup of fruit should be no larger than your fist.
• One ounce of meat or cheese is about the same as the size of your thumb from base to tip.
• Three ounces of meat, fish, or poultry (a normal serving) is about the size of your palm.
• One to two ounces of nuts equals your cupped hand.

You must have heard of the adage: eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper. A study published in the journal Obesity, has concluded that timing the caloric size of your meals in a day is important for weight loss. The research divided  2 groups of obese women, both given the same total caloric intake per day of 1400kcal. In the first group, breakfast was 700kcal, lunch 500kcal and dinner 200kcal, while the second group was given breakfast of 200kcal, lunch 500kcal and dinner 700kcal. The types of food was same for both groups, and their weight changes were measured after 3 months.

Both the groups showed weight reduction at the end of the 3 months, because of the restricted caloric diet (1400kcal/day) but the first group showed greater weight loss and weight circumference reduction. Other than weight and size drop, the heavy breakfast group also showed:

1. significant drop of fasting glucose
2. greater drop of cholesterol level
3. greater level of satiety score (less hungry throughout the day)

So it might pay to have your main meal on the early side. However, don't lose sight of the fact that what works in the long run is cutting calories by portion control and not so much on food group restriction. 

Eating clean with the right portion and being more physically active, is the only diet that will work!

The best diet is not a diet at all but a way of life that includes food you enjoy, exercise, and healthy habits. Here are some tips to kick start a portion controlled clean eating habit, and physical activities:

• Eat a variety of foods -- lean protein; complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables; and "good" fats, like omega-3 fats from fish and monounsaturated fats from avocados, nuts, and olives or olive oil.
• Say NO to bad fats: minimize how much saturated fat you get from animal sources, and eliminate trans fats from the fried foods, snacks, and fast food products you eat.
• Eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables each day. Choose different colors of fruits and vegetables to ensure optimal nutrition.
• Be careful about portion sizes. If you must have seconds, serve yourself vegetables.
• Exercise at least 150 minutes each week with a moderately intense activity like brisk walking. This can be divided into smaller blocks of time. For example, you could do a brisk walk for 10 minutes three times a day for five days to reach 150 minutes.  
• Clean out the kitchen and eliminate all junk food. Toss out high-calorie, high-fat, sugary foods that will tempt you to overeat -- chips, cookies, crackers, ice cream, candy bars, and the like.
• Fill your kitchen with lean protein, fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, good fats, and fat-free or low-fat dairy products.
• Eat smaller meals more frequently. Five to six per day may be best. Space your meals every three to four hours throughout your day. Try taking low fat cheese and whole grain crackers to school or work for a snack, or eat a tablespoon of peanut butter with one slice of whole grain bread. Find foods that are healthy and that keep you full.
• If you like lots of food on your plate, fill up with a large salad and a super serving of green beans, broccoli, cabbage, kale, or other low calorie vegetable.
• Snack on berries. Dark berries (blueberries, blackberries, cherries, and raspberries) are rich in healthy antioxidants. They are also low in calories and fat and high in fiber.
• Avoid "empty calories" including sugar-containing sodas and fruit drinks.

Reference:

http://www.webmd.com/diet/guide/the-truth-about-fad-diets

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieting

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23512957