On the Facebook fan page, someone asked for my thoughts on the “6 meal plan” offered up by Dr. Oz.. who I kinda have a little crush on, but who doesn’t? The details are pasted below:

Mini-meal #1: Protein

You can choose from a variety of food choices, but your first meal must be a protein. Healthy options include:

• Greek yogurt
• Lean meats
• Fish
• Nuts
• Beans

Mini-meal #2: Healthy Fats

Again, there is flexibility in the kind of healthy fat you can have, but keep the food in the same category. Options include:

• Canned salmon (which contains Omega-3s)
• Walnuts
• Avocados
• Olives
• Sunflower/pumpkin/flax seeds

Mini-meal #3: Whole Grains

• Whole-wheat bagel with low-fat cream cheese
• Brown rice
• Oatmeal
• Popcorn
• Whole-wheat bread, pasta or crackers
• Wild rice

Mini-meal #4: Fiber

• Grains and whole-grain products
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Beans, peas and other legumes
• Nuts and seeds

Mini-meal #5: Metabolism Booster

Salad with hot green peppers

Mini-meal #6: Healthy Sweets

Dark chocolate

To ensure that you experience at least SOME kind of weight loss, you’re encouraged to take at least 10,000 steps each day (counted by a pedometer), as well as taking a few vitamins. What are my thoughts?

Hmmm… I mean, to me, I think it’s almost too compartmentalized to be appropriate for every lifestyle. Someone who has to do a lot of business meetings for lunch might find it difficult to stick to a strictly whole-grain lunch. I think it’s an awesome challenge and would be valuable for anyone to jump on it, simply because getting used to having these things in your daily diet is a great thing to have. However… would someone get so frustrated by the limitations that they’d quit altogether? That’s an interesting question, to me.

The question of whether or not one could remain full off of an eating plan like this was posed to me.. and I’ve got to tell you.

YES!

I eat six times a day! I have a short breakfast, a quick brunch, lunch, a snack, dinner, then a last quick bite. I am never hungry. My tummy doesn’t even rumble any more because it knows that food is coming. Because my stomach doesn’t rumble anymore, I no longer eat (or overeat) based off of hunger. I’m no longer forced to stuff myself until that “hungry” feeling goes away.

So, in short… I don’t think the Six-Meal Plan is for beginners to the “healthier lifestyle” movement. I think it’s almost too radical and different to encourage long-lasting changes. I DO think the way it allows the dieter to really focus on specific food groups is an awesome way to get in the habit of making sure we’re getting the good stuff everyday. I love the six times a day eating schedule, and do recommend it for everyone.

What do you think? Opting to give the plan a try?

My Thoughts On Dr. Oz’s 6 Meal Plan is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2012. | Permalink | 13 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Fad Diets

I do. What happened to breakfast?

Why do we do this to ourselves? Because we know that we’ll be alright if we only get something else a little later on instead of now? Are we even properly gauging what we can actually handle?

Here’s the skinny: It’s called breakfast because you’re breaking the fast that you endure when sleeping. You fast during sleep, you wake up, you eat! If you wait until lunch time.. what happens? You’re starving, and likely to order to first 1,300 calorie burger you can get your mitts on and pow! Overeating again!

Is it an issue of time? If so, here’s a suggestion. Grab a waffle or two. Cut up some fruit in ziploc bags, and grab one in the morning as you prepare your shower or get your thoughts together for the day.

No matter how many times you hear your friends say otherwise, skipping breakfast isn’t saving you calories in the slightest. They eventually wind up overcompensating for the calories lost at breakfast, because the body is much more hungry than it would’ve been at breakfast. It’s not beneficial to your weight loss efforts at all!

It could be as complex as a salsa omelette, or as simple as a half of a grapefruit sliced in fourths. The important thing here is to nourish your body in the morning, so that you’re not eating to make up for 14-16 hours of starvation at lunch time. Your tummy will thank you for it!

Skipping Breakfast: A Surefire Way To Gain Weight is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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2. Q&A Wednesday: A Black Girl’s Guide To Weight GAIN?
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Post tags: Fad Diets

…accompanied with the following short story:

It takes several long stares to comprehend that these photos depict rapper 50 Cent, who once looked like this. In the name of his burgeoning acting career, he removed several tattoos and lost 60 lbs. to play a cancer patient.

…50 Cent can expect breathless accolades for his portrayal of a cancer patient in next year’s Things Fall Apart. These photos come from 50 Cent’s official fan site, where a moderator explains,

He dropped from 214 pounds to an astonishing 160 with a liquid diet and three-hour-a-day treadmill walks for nine weeks.

“I was starving.” Now he’s back on tour and says, “I’ve been eating. I’ll be back in shape in no time!”

I didn’t expect anyone to really ask me what I thought about it, but hey. This is a site about weight loss, huh?

Y’know, 50 Cent isn’t the first to go to drastic measures to fulfill the obligations of a role. I can think of celebrities gaining weight (Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull, Jennifer Hudson with Dreamgirls), losing weight (Tom Hanks in Cast Away, Jennifer Hudson… again, supposedly)… and working darn hard to get the rubber band to go back to normal after stretching it to its limits, so to speak.

Frankly, my dear…

I couldn’t care less. I’m certainly not inspired by his “diet” to try it on myself. Why? Because I know three things:

1) These celebrities are paid very well for their time and efforts in taking their bodies to the limits to fulfill the needs of their roles. It’s one thing to select a celebrity for either their star power (the name they’ve built) or their talent regardless of how they look nothing like the character… but to select them and expect them to go that extra distance? Someone is paying serious dough for it. I can’t knock the hustle if 50 Cent felt like the dough was worth the strain on his body that a liquid diet may leave him with – actually, I could, but like my usual statement goes… I’m neither invested in nor affected by his personal decisions.

2) They are monitoring his every-freaking-move while on this thing. Think about it – a full liquid diet and only cardio is meant to deflate the body – it’s supposed to make him look like a cancer patient! A lifestyle meant to emaciate the body that thoroughly, coupled with that money in point one? Means he’s got the best doctors monitoring his every move. And rightfully so. Liquid diets are no joke. He’s being monitored so closely because he needed extreme measures for a temporary effect. As he said, “I’ve been eating – I’ll be back in shape in no time!” He’s basically telling you… that mess was only temporary. And as anyone who reads this site often would know, I’m gonna tell you – healthy, sustainable weight loss is absolutely about a lifestyle change. Not a temporary diet.

3) Look at him. He looks like his role. They nailed it! The body I want is brickhouse-style, and I know how to get it. That certainly doesn’t include looking like I’m battling cancer. Any brickhouse you know that resembles 50 Cent in these photos, well… you’re lying about her being a brickhouse. Ya just are.

In short… unless you’re being paid millions of dollars to go out of your way to change the way your body responds to food and, well, life… I suggest you skip that idea and just look forward to seeing 50 putting this new body to use.

Drastic Celebrity Weight Loss: 50 Cent is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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Post tags: 50 cent, bad ideas, celebrities, dieting, extreme weight loss, liquid diet

The entire article is very long and I think the information included within is hard to digest all at once, so I figured that digesting it in pieces – no pun intended… okay, maybe a little – might make it easier to discuss.

The first part I want to talk about is the part that discusses the failure of diets:

The most immediate reason that diets don’t work over the long term is that they promote a loss of the internal signals for hunger and fullness that are necessary for normal eating. This was the finding of a classic study conducted by Janet Polivy and Peter Herman at the University of Toronto, published in 1999. In this experiment, a group of dieters and a group of nondieters were given the task of comparing ice cream flavors. Participants in each group were divided into three subgroups. Before getting the ice cream, the first subgroup was asked to drink two milkshakes, the second subgroup was asked to drink one milkshake, and the third subgroup wasn’t given any milkshakes. Next, the researchers offered the groups three flavors of ice cream and asked the participants to rate the flavors, eating as much ice cream as they desired.

The results revealed that the nondieters ate as you might expect: those who hadn’t consumed any milkshakes ate the most ice cream, those who’d consumed one milkshake ate less ice cream, and those who’d consumed two milkshakes ate the least. The dieters, by contrast, reacted in the opposite way. Those who were offered no milkshakes before the taste test ate small amounts of ice cream, those who drank one shake ate more ice cream, and those who’d consumed two milkshakes ate the most ice cream!

The researchers termed what had happened to the dieters “disinhibition,” which occurs as a result of a “diet-mentality.” The milkshake preload had a different effect on dieters than on nondieters. Nondieters, eating in an unrestrained and normal manner, tend to regulate their food consumption according to internal physical cues of hunger and satiety. Therefore, in the experiment, nondieters regulated the amount of ice cream they ate based on perceived fullness. What could be more obvious and natural?

The dieters, however, reacted in the opposite way — the more milkshakes they consumed, the more ice cream they ate. Why did they lose the capacity to regulate their intake? According to the researchers, this “counterregulation” occurs because a milkshake preload disinhibits a dieter’s usually inhibited or restrained eating, almost like a switch: “I’ve blown it anyway, so I might as well keep eating before I go back on my diet.” This is an almost irresistible incentive to go on eating well past physical fullness.

This passage made me think of the blog post I’d most recently written about deprivation:

If there’s one thing I know about myself, it’s this: the more I try to deny myself access to something, the more desirable that something becomes. Be it cupcakes, cookies, ice cream, brussel sprouts… whatever. If I deny myself access to it for long enough, the more desirable it becomes.I’m willing to bet I’m not the only person wired that way.

Depriving myself of something, in a sense, means that even though I “reeeeeeeeeally want” something, I’m still saying “no.” This isn’t just a simple “I’d like to have it.” This is an “OMG I WANT IT AND THIS ISNT FAIR DAMN IT!” craving. That kind of compulsion is strange and it means that something else may very well be behind the craving – like a sugar addiction, perhaps? – that needs to be addressed.

Isn’t this part of what makes dieting so silly, though? Not only do you not address the real issue (why the craving exists), and not only do you deprive yourself of something you want, in most cases you’re depriving yourself of lots of the things you need. Like, well, food. C’mon – grapefruit is awesome and all… but I couldn’t imagine eating only grapefruit for breakfast and lunch and then having “a sensible dinner.” Substitute grapefruit for an [insert brand name] shake and, well… the same thing applies.

Excerpted from A Few Thoughts on Cravings, Deprivation and Indulging | A Black Girl’s Guide To Weight Loss

Does this study surprise you? Does it confuse you? Do you share these experiences? Thoughts?

Why Diets Make You Fat: Why Diets Fail is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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2. “Why Even Resolute Dieters Often Fail”
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Post tags: dieting, why diets make you fat

Let me start this off by saying that I’m usually not a judgmental person. I’m just.. not. I feel like educated people should be able to make educated decisions about their lives without unsolicited criticism or influence from others. I also feel like after a certain age, you should be given the benefit of the doubt and it should be assumed that we’re all very intelligent. Hence.. I don’t judge. However.. for some reason, when it comes to health and fitness, this line is blurry for me. Why? Because even the most intelligent of individuals are still out there committing the most egregious of sins when it comes to health. I’m not talking about eating a whole bag of cheetos or slaughtering a whole pie. I’m talking about stuff like the HCG diet.

Table of Contents

• What is the HCG diet?
• What does the HCG injection do?
• Are there any significant HCG studies to review?
• Why is this 50 year old “diet” being reintroduced as new?
• What makes this so unhealthy?

What IS the HCG diet?

Well, let me tell you. It consists of injections of HCG in your ass, and 500 calories a day. Ta da!

Wait… that’s it?

I can hear you asking it in your head. Of course that’s it.

Taking a look at HowStuffWorks gives a pretty thorough understanding of what the diet hopes to accomplish for any of it’s participants:

Shifting into the HCG diet is likely to be quite a lifestyle change. Participants are required to cut their caloric intake to roughly 500 calories and take a daily injection of HCG hormones. More water, vegetables and fiber in the daily meal plan is said to accelerate the weight loss [source: HCG Weight Loss]. There is no established exercise regimen, and the duration of the diet is up to the individual, as the plan dictates that the rules be followed until the target goal is reached.

The original HCG diet plan is quite restrictive and particular. For breakfast, you can have only tea or coffee without sugar. The diet puts a one-tablespoon limit on how much milk you can consume each day, so if you require milk with your coffee and tea, you’ll want to keep this in mind. For lunch and dinner, you can cook 100 grams (.22 pounds) of lean meat or seafood and pair it with one vegetable from this list of 13: asparagus, beet greens, cabbage, celery, chard, chicory, cucumbers, fennel, green salad, onions, red radishes, spinach and tomatoes. For lunch and dinner, you can eat one toast cracker and an orange, apple, half a grapefruit or strawberries [source: Goldsmith].

That explains the eating habits and how, on Earth, you’re expected to survive on 500 calories. But what about the injections? What is HCG? Ask HCGWeightLoss how this stuff works, and they’ll tell you the following:

In overweight people, HCG seeks out the stored nutrients in the fat cells. Liquefying the content of the fat cell, these nutrients are then flushed through the bloodstream. This naturally stored energy supplies the body with upwards to 2000 calories per day. While burning this stored energy, the body’s energy level increases and appetite decreases. The cells are emptied and shrunk down to sizes much smaller than normal cells. Therefore, inches, as well as pounds are lost on the program. — HCGWeightLoss

Let’s talk about that whole HCG thing. HCG stands for human Chorionic Gonadtrophin. You know how, when a woman believes they’re pregnant, they go and snag a pregnancy test? Well, those tests are looking for HCG, because it’s the chemical that pregnancy produces in the human body. According to The Daily Spark, it’s possible that HCG serves to break down stored abdominal fat to be used as an energy source for a growing fetus, thereby increasing the budding mom’s metabolism. This is why it’s assumed that HCG can do the same for the non-pregnant (quite a term, ain’t it?) as well. It’s also generated in the human body as an indicator of some cancers [Source: UFB], as well as a tumor. It can be prescribed by a doctor to increase fertility, as well as aid in the production of testosterone for men. Needless to say, it has its beneficial uses.

Notice I didn’t say anything about weight loss. Why? Because I can’t find any study to back that claim. In fact, a trip to the National Center for Biotechnology Information’s website produced a study titled The effect of human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) in the treatment of obesity by means of the Simeons therapy: a criteria-based meta-analysis.

Guess what that said?

We conclude that there is no scientific evidence that HCG is effective in the treatment of obesity; it does not bring about weight-loss of fat-redistribution, nor does it reduce hunger or induce a feeling of well-being.

Got another. Guess what it said?

There was no statistically significant difference between those receiving HCG vs placebo during any phase of this study…

In the mood for overkill?

HCG does not appear to enhance the effectiveness of a rigidly imposed regimen for weight reduction.

Keep in mind, the daily injections of HCG are supposed to be the mitigating factor in whether or not you can handle getting by on 500 calories a day. If there is study after study after study after study that says it’s not possible, how are these people getting by? Apparently, there are people all over that are getting by on this diet, so what’s the deal?

I have a personal guess. You know how, if you go out of town for an extended period of time – say, for a conference or something – and your eating habits change drastically because you have to accommodate your new temporary schedule? You ever experience that feeling of, I don’t know, comfort or complacency accepting the changes in your eating habits? Maybe it’s attributed to mind over matter, maybe it’s your body getting used to the changes, maybe the lack of calories just konked out your ability to understand what you’re doing to yourself. Either way… the HCG can’t help you. Period. Your body is simply trying to accept the deficiency you’re forcing on it – and it may do a good job of accepting it at first – but you’re not becoming “less hungry” because of the shots.

The NHLBI advocates that a healthy weight loss plan will include cutting your caloric intake by anywhere from 500-1000 calories. Considering how the average person takes in about 2000 calories in one day (very base assumption) and it only takes 3500 calories to lose one pound… if you cut down to 500 calories in a day, it’s not going to take too long to see weight start falling off. Right? The deficiency of at LEAST 1500 calories is going to ensure that you lose at least one pound every two days.

Why is this 50 year old “diet” being reintroduced now?

I believe I can also answer that. You know the guy — yeah, the one with no medical credentials whatsoever — on the late night infomercials peddling the “natural cures” book that talks about how to save on prescriptions by instead going a more holistic route in regard to health? Well, his name is Kevin Trudeau and he’s taken up the task of reintroducing the HCG diet to the masses. In 2007, he wrote a book about how HCG is “the weight loss plan they don’t want you to know about.” His whole shtick is promoting cures that the government doesn’t/won’t advocate because the government is SO in bed with the pharmaceutical/food industry, they’re not going to promote something that will hurt their buddies’ profit margins. Regardless of whether or not I think there’s truth to that (I’m sure you’ll figure it out in my future posts), he’s profiting off of the fears and paranoias of the public. The FTC makes it their business to publish press releases about how much of a crook he is… and I’d hate to forget the lawsuit.

I’ll make it easy for you, so you can get a quick glimpse of the FTC’s beef with him:

During the ads, Trudeau claims that the weight loss plan outlined in the book is easy to do, can be done at home, and ultimately allows readers to eat whatever they want. However, when consumers purchase the book, they find it describes a complex, grueling plan that requires severe dieting, daily injections of a prescription drug that consumers cannot easily get, and lifelong dietary restrictions.

Why is this so unhealthy, though?

Because you’re not a gerbil. You’re a human being… and if you’re living a regular day as a carnivorous individual, you’re not going to be able to function on the portion sizes that 500 calories would allow you. A better question would be, “Why is the injection so pointless?” Now, that? I can answer:

When hCG was tested, it was compared to a placebo which included the Very Low Calorie Diet. And yes, VLCDs work. You will lose weight on one. Guidance and support can also be very helpful for weight loss; that’s why programs like Weight Watchers have regular meetings and weigh ins. Frankly, if you have to be accountable to someone for your successes and failures, you tend to be a little more serious about making an effort.

But what the clinical data shows is that when you compare the results of people on a VLCD and those on a VLCD and hCG, there is no perceptible difference—in weight loss, in perceived hunger, in anything.

In other words, it is the low calorie diet, possibly in conjunction with the regular support and guidance, that is responsible for the weight loss.

Not the hCG shots.

And even if it were effective, it would not be easy to obtain. You’d need regular intramuscular injections, a “friendly” doctor to prescribe it for “off label” usage, and it would cost you and arm and a leg. — UFB

I have my complaints about supplements, but I will save those for another rant. Why? Because I’m well over 1500 words on this one. The bottom line is this: considering injecting your body with a foreign substance all as a means of tricking it into undoing the years of damage you’ve BEEN doing to it… is not the answer to your weight loss problems. It simply isn’t. Trying to circumvent the process of healthy eating and regular activity will cost you every time, and seeing as how these injections and “treatments” are getting more and more radical by the day… following the wrong trend can cost you your life. Be happy, be healthy, but most of all.. be smart. : )

The HCG Diet – Philosophy, Execution, Contradiction, and Stupidity is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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1. What’s The Most Ridiculous Diet You’ve Ever Heard Of?
2. The Anatomy of A Diet: Why They Work, and Why The Success Never Lasts
3. The Twinkie Diet: What Do You Mean, It Works?!

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Fad Diets, hcg diet

Diet, diet, diet. We’ve all heard the word. We’re sick of the word. We’re even sicker of dieting than we are of the WORD diet.

Having said that, I’m interested – what’s the most ridiculous diet you’ve ever heard of? I’ve got a few, but I want as many people to participate in this one as possible. So share! Post the most ridiculous diet you’ve ever heard in the comments! Let’s laugh together!

What’s The Most Ridiculous Diet You’ve Ever Heard Of? is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

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2. Taco Bell Thinks You’re Stupid: Try The Drive-Thru Diet!
3. The Twinkie Diet: What Do You Mean, It Works?!

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Post tags: dieting, Fad Diets

Let’s just also say that I am also honored to know that y’all care what I think about these issues. Don’t ever stop sending me stuff, though. Ever.(Please?)

On to the subject at hand, though.

Meet Professor Mark Haub. He teaches nutrition at Kansas State University. That’s important. Remember that.

Professor Haub decided to go on a diet that consisted of majority junk food… as a means of proving that it is the quantity of the calories one consumes, not the quality. Meaning, it doesn’t matter where your calories come from. What matters is that you cut your portion sizes down. This is important. Remember this, too.

I’m going to [resentfully] quote the article:

His premise: That in weight loss, pure calorie counting is what matters most — not the nutritional value of the food.

The premise held up: On his “convenience store diet,” he shed 27 pounds in two months.

For a class project, Haub limited himself to less than 1,800 calories a day. A man of Haub’s pre-dieting size usually consumes about 2,600 calories daily. So he followed a basic principle of weight loss: He consumed significantly fewer calories than he burned.

His body mass index went from 28.8, considered overweight, to 24.9, which is normal. He now weighs 174 pounds.

But you might expect other indicators of health would have suffered. Not so.

Haub’s “bad” cholesterol, or LDL, dropped 20 percent and his “good” cholesterol, or HDL, increased by 20 percent. He reduced the level of triglycerides, which are a form of fat, by 39 percent.

“That’s where the head scratching comes,” Haub said. “What does that mean? Does that mean I’m healthier? Or does it mean how we define health from a biology standpoint, that we’re missing something?”

It means you’re missing something. Trust me. The article goes on, though:

Despite his temporary success, Haub does not recommend replicating his snack-centric diet.

“I’m not geared to say this is a good thing to do,” he said. “I’m stuck in the middle. I guess that’s the frustrating part. I can’t give a concrete answer. There’s not enough information to do that.”

Two-thirds of his total intake came from junk food. He also took a multivitamin pill and drank a protein shake daily. And he ate vegetables, typically a can of green beans or three to four celery stalks.

Families who live in food deserts have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables, so they often rely on the kind of food Haub was eating.

“These foods are consumed by lots of people,” he said. “It may be an issue of portion size and moderation rather than total removal. I just think it’s unrealistic to expect people to totally drop these foods for vegetables and fruits. It may be healthy, but not realistic.”

Haub’s body fat dropped from 33.4 to 24.9 percent. This posed the question: What matters more for weight loss, the quantity or quality of calories?

If the body isn’t operating optimally, how long do you think you can last on a diet that doesn’t aid it in achieving that goal?

But wait… there’s more:

His success is probably a result of caloric reduction, said Dawn Jackson Blatner, a dietitian based in Atlanta, Georgia.

“It’s a great reminder for weight loss that calories count,” she said. “Is that the bottom line to being healthy? That’s another story.”

Blatner, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, said she’s not surprised to hear Haub’s health markers improved even when he loaded up on processed snack cakes.

Being overweight is the central problem that leads to complications like high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, she said.

“When you lose weight, regardless of how you’re doing it — even if it’s with packaged foods, generally you will see these markers improve when weight loss has improved,” she said.

Before jumping on the Ding Dong bandwagon, Blatner warned of health concerns.

“There are things we can’t measure,” said Blatner, questioning how the lack of fruits and vegetables could affect long-term health. “How much does that affect the risk for cancer? We can’t measure how diet changes affect our health.”

I can’t take this any more. All of these people with big giant degrees and alphabet soup behind their names still don’t get it.

I’m going to start from the top. Professor Haub went from eating 2600 calories a day to eating 1800 calories a day. Let’s take a look at Professor Haub’s sample daily diet:

• Espresso, Double: 6 calories; 0 grams of fat
• Hostess Twinkies Golden Sponge Cake: 150 calories; 5 grams of fat; 19g sugar; 220mg sodium
• Centrum Advanced Formula From A To Zinc: 0 calories; 0 grams of fat
• Little Debbie Star Crunch: 150 calories; 6 grams of fat; 11.9g sugar; 70mg sodium
• Hostess Twinkies Golden Sponge Cake: 150 calories; 5 grams of fat; 19g sugar; 220mg sodium
• Diet Mountain Dew: 0 calories; 0 grams of fat; 0g sugar; 35mg sodium
• Doritos Cool Ranch: 75 calories; 4 grams of fat; .5g sugar; 85mg sodium
• Kellogg’s Corn Pops: 220 calories; 0 grams of fat; 12g sugar; 110mg sodium
• whole milk: 150 calories; 8 grams of fat; 12g sugar; 125mg sodium
• baby carrots: 18 calories; 0 grams of fat
• Duncan Hines Family Style Brownie Chewy Fudge: 270 calories; 14 grams of fat; 32g sugar; 115mg sodium
• Little Debbie Zebra Cake: 160 calories; 8 grams of fat; 31g sugar; 170mg sodium
• Muscle Milk Protein Shake: 240 calories; 9 grams of fat; 6g sugar; 580mg sodium 

Totals: 1,589 calories and 59 grams of fat (143.4g of sugar, 1730mg of sodium)

The sugar and sodium totals are mine – CNN didn’t provide those. Remember that, too.

Let’s look closely at Professor Haub’s “results” from his diet:

• He lost 27lbs in 2mos.
• His body mass index (BMI) decreased from 28.8 to 24.9, .1 below the “overweight” classification, considered “normal.”
• His LDL cholesterol (cleverly referred to as bad cholesterol) dropped 20%, while his HDL (the good cholesterol) was elevated by 20%.
• His body fat percentage dropped from 33.4% to 24.9%.

I have questions.

First, I know that he said he worked out regularly and ate healthily before he began this “diet,” but he also said that he also worked out during the diet, as well. Did he find himself properly fueled for his regular activity? Did he ever increase or decrease the length of his workouts? Did he find himself growing more and more tired throughout the day as the diet continued? Did he ever hit “the wall” earlier on in his workouts than before?

(And, really, I am familiar with how people overreport their “healthfulness” and underreport their healthy living shortcomings… so I don’t expect honest answers, let alone answers period to my question.)

Secondly, why would a nutritionist [professor] be confused about cholesterol levels decreasing when meat is cut from one’s daily intake? Assuming he wasn’t a vegetarian, the fat consumed from his “twinkie diet” would be considerably less than that consumed from animal and animal by-products… so if you’ve cut meat and all you’re ingesting (as far as animal by-products go) is whole milk, then yes. Your cholesterol will decrease. Mentioning these results without clarifying that point seems dishonest and while I don’t know whether Professor Haub or the journo is to blame for that, it needs to be said.

Thirdly, I want to be clear. Can diets create weight loss? Yes! A big giant man who is used to taking in 2600 calories each day, who cuts his caloric intake by 800 calories, is going to lose weight. Let me be clear. Deprivation works.

That’s not what’s in question, here.

I’ve said this before and it [clearly] bears repeating:

Why does dieting work? Dieting works because it is an extremely mindless form of calorie counting. If I’ve only allowed myself to choose from this one low-calorie food to eat, I can’t possibly gain weight, right? You don’t have to think about the food you’re eating and whether or not it’ll cause you to gain weight – you KNOW this one food won’t cause you to put on any pounds, you know exactly what you’re going to do. It’s auto-pilot for weight loss.

However – because it usually involves something that you can only manage temporarily, you tend to come off of it – excited to beat the pounds – by celebrating with what? More food you have no business indulging in in the first place!

Why does the weight ALWAYS come back? Because… wait for it… auto-pilot doesn’t work for weight loss! That’s right – you can’t do it. Why? Because waking up one day and deciding that you’re going to go auto-pilot eating nothing but grapefruit for breakfast and lunch can’t change the fact that your auto-pilot used to lead you to McDonalds or Krispy Kreme for breakfast every morning. Auto-pilot, unfortunately, does equate to mindlessness. It’s operating without thinking. “Not thinking” before led us to being unhealthy in the first place. It certainly won’t lead us to “healthy,” and if it does, it certainly wouldn’t do it overnight… or in two-six weeks like other diets.

Without a relatively rare medical condition, you cannot put the weight on if you aren’t putting harmful things in your mouth. It simply does not work that way. Dieting might help you drop a few pounds, but if your eating habits are in check you couldn’t put it on in the first place… and you couldn’t run the risk of gaining it back once you “come off” of your diet. It solves the immediate visual problem – if only momentarily- however you’re not addressing the thing that not only ensures that you’ll always have the weight, but in some cases also ensures that you’re doing some damage to your insides, as well.

Excerpted from: The Anatomy of A Diet: Why They Work, and Why The Success Never Lasts

The issue is not – nor has it ever been – whether or not a diet can work. If “work” is defined as “causing you to lose weight,” then yes, they “work.” The issue is sustainability. The issue is whether or not you’ve taken on a diet that cannot be turned into a lifestyle. Whether or not you’ve properly addressed any issues you may have with emotional eating (which will directly affect ones ability to control their portions, something this diet apparently makes a huge deal out of), whether or not you’ve handled any psychological issues that may prevent you from reaching your goals (because, as with most diets, you will hit a brick wall where you have to change again in order to keep losing) and whether or not you’re doing yourself a disservice internally will all play ginormous parts in one’s success in a diet.

You didn’t think I was going to do all this dieting talk without talking about health, right? “But his cholesterol… his blood pressure… his body fat percentage… they all lowered!” So what? Let me tell you something. The chemical makeup of his diet is… nauseating. To quote Maya Naura, RD:

In order to lose weight, our liver essentially turns fat stores into energy and is burned off. When we consume, breathe in, be in, or live in ’toxic’ material, that same one and only liver neutralizes the toxic material and it is removed from the body. Keep in mind diet coke is ‘seen’ by your body as a toxic substance. It’s not food, it’s not water, so what the heck is it? An unusable, toxic substance. Our liver is very clever in prioritizing it’s duties. We can’t live with toxic material overloading the body so the liver needs to neutralize it, putting weight loss to the side. And the better news? If toxin removal pathways aren’t functioning properly, which most aren’t, that toxic substance ends up stored in fat cells… so much for counting calories. [source]

So… my unscientific opinion is that a privileged male living on a tenured professor’s salary probably has been eating well enough for long enough that these effects haven’t hit him yet, but they would. Without question. A middle (upper?) class man coming down off of a healthy lifestyle to “eat like the poor” is much different from people who, unfortunately, have to live this reality.

And that’s my next point. Studies like this won’t affect privileged and monied college professors who can afford to jovially come up off their pathetic little twinkie diet. This will affect the people who have to live this diet, as well as the public’s perception of those people… that even though they’re poor and aren’t getting enough food, they’re still obese because they’re eating too much food. So, not only should the poor not have access to certain foods, they should also stop eating as much as they do now, and we need to stop harassing grocery conglomerates about setting up shop and offering these people actual food that isn’t all chemicals.

I cannot explain how alarmingly important that is: “even though they’re poor and aren’t getting enough food, they’re still obese because they’re eating too much of the food they actually have access to, now.” It’s right back to “fat people are fat because they have no self-control.”

A person living off of a processed food diet faces the following:

If you watched the clip above, you already know. Our processed foods are broken down to their most basic parts, mixed in with preservatives (which help, you know, preserve the final product), flavor additives, water, flour, various forms of salt, then manipulated to be whatever they want to sell us. The same ground up chicken carcass (which is what is in that photo) can be chicken patties, chicken nuggets, chicken fingers, “diced chicken,” the chicken in your chicken pot pie, the chicken in your soup… whatever. Just look for “mechanically separated [animal] parts.” You won’t have to look too hard.

Once it’s broken down to create this… goo… chemicals are used to hold it in place to form whatever shape it’s going to take. Once it meets your saliva and enters your body, it breaks right back down to the goo… with no fiber inside to help push it out. It essentially deflates inside of your system, making it easier to consume more calories because you’re “not full yet.” Couple all of this with the fact that it takes approximately 20 minutes for your brain to get the signal from your digestive system that you’re “full,” and you start to see why a food that breaks down this quickly is a recipe for disaster – a breaded chicken breast on wheat bread breaks down much more slowly than a chicken patty sandwich on white bread, takes longer to chew (buying you time until that 20 minute mark… see what that 30 bites was important?), takes longer to digest (thus leaving you feeling fulfilled longer), and keeps you from overindulging. You’re getting that “full” feeling for less calories. You’re not scarfing it down because it’s breaking down faster than it can fill you up… only to find that “all-of-a-sudden-I-feel-like-I-ate-too-much” feeling arrive.

A privileged, well-off professor… who – it is likely – has never experienced these issues before his stupid twinkie experiment, probably doesn’t have a hard time understanding “I eat this much. I stop. That’s it. No more.” 10 weeks may not be long enough for his body to get sucked into this cycle. Maybe years of “eating healthily” has rendered him immune to these harmful effects.

I’m just gonna come out and say it. This is why I find nutritionists useless, pointless and downright annoying. Taking the nutrients out of the context of the food, the foods out of the context of the diet, the diet out of the context of the lifestyle and the lifestyle out of the context of duration does nothing to further nutrition science. It does nothing to further our understanding of how food impacts our health. What sense does it make for a rich white dude in the suburbs with (assumedly very little stress) to adopt the lifestyle of the impoverished who might fear their lights being turned off?

How much sense does it make that he would release his findings to places like CNN, for goodness sake, when all he can do is scratch his behind and say “Derrr, I don’t really know why any of this happened… I just know that it happened?” Why does he not know the consequences of his releasing his findings? Why wouldn’t he wait until he had more concrete answers? How salacious and attention getting for him (and his University, don’t get it twisted) to release these findings, knowing there’d be hoards of people excited that they, too, might cut 800 calories from their daily intake, still work out, eat sugary crap food and still lose weight? Nothing to mention of whether people are even in the position to cut 800 calories from their diet (a girl who weight 120lbs, antsy to lose a last 5lbs isn’t in a position to cut 800 calories AND still work out.) Nothing to mention of whether or not people would be satisfied after eating a twinkie for a meal. (Did the article say whether or not HE was satisfied after eating that amount?) Nothing to mention whether or not there would be additional ramifications of his little diet. He doesn’t know… and I’m not sure whether or not it’s because he doesn’t care, but I’m positive it’s because he’s not concerned with that.

Before I go… there are two parts of the CNN article I want to address directly:

Blatner, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, said she’s not surprised to hear Haub’s health markers improved even when he loaded up on processed snack cakes.

Being overweight is the central problem that leads to complications like high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, she said.

“When you lose weight, regardless of how you’re doing it — even if it’s with packaged foods, generally you will see these markers improve when weight loss has improved,” she said.

So… excess fat causes high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol levels? Or… is it that the foods that cause high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol levels also cause excess fat?

One sentence makes the weight the problem. The other sentence makes the weight an additional consequence of the actual problem… which is poor food choices. I bet almost no one will catch that, though.

Meanwhile, twinkie sales have gone up 30%, and Kansas State University will probably be opening up a new science and nutrition lab in about three years: Hostess Hall.

The Twinkie Diet: What Do You Mean, It Works?! is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. What’s The Most Ridiculous Diet You’ve Ever Heard Of?
2. Diet Drinks Bad For Your Heart?
3. The Anatomy of A Diet: Why They Work, and Why The Success Never Lasts

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 28 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: american dietetic association, dieting, fast weight loss, kansas state university, nutritionists, twinkie diet

The Cabbage Diet. The Grapefruit Diet. The Cookie Diet. The Cereal Diet. The Mayo Clinic Diet. The Tea Diet. The Seaweed and Coral Diet (better known as The Spongebob Diet… I just made it up, but I bet I could make some money off of it, huh?)

Now, after my post on the Drive-Thru Diet, I’d like to think that my attitude on diets is relatively clear – I strongly believe they’re a band-aid on a bullet wound. They don’t address the core issue (getting the bullet out), they don’t prevent the problem from getting worse (as in, an infection), and they don’t really help you get better… they just help you stop looking at the problem, really.

However, I do realize that because you can get immediate results, it’s easy to opt for a diet. A little discomfort but minimal effort, no need for exercise, quick and easy weight loss. It seems pretty ideal, I guess. We’re just always dumbfounded when the weight manages to pile itself back on. Dumbfounded, and heavier.

So let’s break down the anatomy of the quick weight loss diet, shall we?

What is a diet?

A diet, in general terms, is simply the “list” of foods that you allow yourself to eat during the day. It’s the foods that you limit yourself to – if you were on the cabbage diet, your daily diet consists of boiled cabbage for breakfast and lunch with a regular dinner. Diets are generally named by the food that dominates your day – cereal diet, cookie diet, mashed potato diet. This all seems kind of “duh,” but we’re breaking it down to it’s very core, right? Gotta start somewhere.

Why is dieting so popular?

Dieting is popular because the notion, quite frankly, is that it works. Limiting yourself to only one food that you KNOW you enjoy, eating it all day every day, and losing weight while you’re at it? It’s a painless way to take care of a problem that already makes us uncomfortable to address or even discuss. Not only that, but in some circles, it’s considered common practice and even “trendy” to be on the current “popular” diet.

Taking it a step further, there is money to be made off of pushing diets. The Mayo Clinic Diet required you to purchase a book. All information about the Cookie Diet led to a website that required you to purchase (and, essentially, live off of) one particular brand of cookie. Most diets that tend to gain media steam behind them do so because someone’s pushing it. Why? You have to invest money to make money.. so pay for the diet to get a little exposure, watch that exposure bring you a lot more money.

Why does dieting work?

Dieting works because it is an extremely mindless form of calorie counting. If I’ve only allowed myself to choose from this one low-calorie food to eat, I can’t possibly gain weight, right? You don’t have to think about the food you’re eating and whether or not it’ll cause you to gain weight – you KNOW this one food won’t cause you to put on any pounds, you know exactly what you’re going to do. It’s auto-pilot for weight loss.

However – because it usually involves something that you can only manage temporarily, you tend to come off of it – excited to beat the pounds – by celebrating with what? More food you have no business indulging in in the first place!

Why does the weight ALWAYS come back?

Because… wait for it… auto-pilot doesn’t work for weight loss! That’s right – you can’t do it. Why? Because waking up one day and deciding that you’re going to go auto-pilot eating nothing but grapefruit for breakfast and lunch can’t change the fact that your auto-pilot used to lead you to McDonalds or Krispy Kreme for breakfast every morning. Auto-pilot, unfortunately, does equate to mindlessness. It’s operating without thinking. “Not thinking” before led us to being unhealthy in the first place. It certainly won’t lead us to “healthy,” and if it does, it certainly wouldn’t do it overnight… or in two-six weeks like other diets.

Without a relatively rare medical condition, you cannot put the weight on if you aren’t putting harmful things in your mouth. It simply does not work that way. Dieting might help you drop a few pounds, but if your eating habits are in check you couldn’t put it on in the first place… and you couldn’t run the risk of gaining it back once you “come off” of your diet. It solves the immediate visual problem – if only momentarily- however you’re not addressing the thing that not only ensures that you’ll always have the weight, but in some cases also ensures that you’re doing some damage to your insides, as well.

How can I successfully lose weight?

You have to look at your lifestyle and gauge what you’re doing that is causing you to keep the weight on. Addressing that will not only cause the weight you’ve put on to fall off, but it will prevent the weight from returning. Sure, you can exercise to help keep it off, but thepurpose of exercise is to preserve your body’s range of motion. Weight loss is only an additional benefit to it.

The best way to protect and preserve our bodies is to be conscious of what we’re putting into it. Although it should be a recurring theme by now, a lifetime of bad habits cannot be corrected or rectified by one to six weeks of sacrifice. When you can be real and honest with yourself about the problem, then you can be real and honest with yourself about a practical long-term solution. And that includes, bypassing the trendy fad diets!

Are you a serial dieter? Have you had success with a diet? Share your stories below – I’d love to hear ‘em!

The Anatomy of A Diet: Why They Work, and Why The Success Never Lasts is a post from: A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss. Thanks for reading!

Related posts:

1. Understanding Calorie Counting: Preparing Yourself For Success
2. What Does A Success Story Look Like To You?
3. Why Don’t Obesity Programs Work For Young Black Girls?

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© Erika for A Black Girl's Guide To Weight Loss, 2011. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dieting, diets, Fad Diets, mentality