To diet and not to diet, that’s the question!

If you have never dieted in your life, you are one lucky duck! The truth is that most of us – estimated 90% of females and 68% of males – have been on a diet of some kind over the years.

It is true that being overweight is unhealthy: obesity may increase the risk of many health problems, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, cancer, fatty liver and kidney disease for example. However, dieting is also the most important factor for developing an eating disorder, it shows poor results in achieving a long-term weight loss, women who diet frequently are more likely to experience depression and it may actually promote weight gain. So what to do to achieve a healthy weight naturally?

I am not a doctor (and if you need help, you should go see one!) but I don’t believe in dieting, I believe in dietary change.

Here goes a thought, if there were a magic formula for weightloss – and if through this formula we could reach our perfect weight and live happily ever after – do you think it would be a profitable business model? Well, although I want to believe that people just want to help others to lose weight and be happy, I am a student of business administration and economics and a business industry with $20 Billion annual revenue (in the US alone) is not really based in charity.

The difference between diet and dietary change or lifestyle change is that dieting deprives one of something he/she wants and a dietary change gives one a better quality of life, improving health and conditioning.

Have you ever heard that: Breakfast like an emperor, lunch like a king and dinner like a beggar? I have realised that what helps me to lose weight is almost that, I eat for breakfast what comes to my mind; if I wanted to eat pizza/pasta or a burger/chips, I would have an early lunch because our body functions “full speed” until noon and after that it gets slower and slower; if I’m having a late lunch I eat some sort of carbs: rice, potatoes or any sort of whole grain (also pasta or pizza); But after 4 pm the best you can give your body is protein – it allows the level of insulin to lower:

Insulin is the primary regulator of fat storage.  When insulin levels are elevated–either chronically or after a meal–we accumulate fat in adopose tissue.  When insulin levels fall, we release fat and oxidize it for fuel.

Fruits are a good source of sugar, so I eat them also until 4pm but vegetables and nuts (not in excess though!) are free to be eaten all day long. I don’t drink soft drinks and juices (industrialized fruit juices) after noon as well, they are unhealthy and full of sugar.

Exercising is also very important if you want to lose weight through habit change! Once again, quality is better than quantity: 30-Minute treadmill (or elliptical/exercise bike) workout, 3 times a week is a great start!

Again, I am not a doctor! It is a simple advice that works really good for me – BUT if you want to eat pizza and burgers every single day, it may not work for you. Keep in mind: Mens sana in corpore sano (“A sound mind in a healthy body”).