Weight Loss Information

Rating The Diets: A Mindless Exercise?


There has been a recent surge in the experts weighing in (pun intended) on popular and celebrity diets to rate them in terms of effectiveness, nutritional adequacy, and balance. Look at the latest crop of magazines, Internet news reports, and television specials.

What is a semi-motivated would-be dieter to do?

Every diet listed seems to give rise to a chorus of criticism. Either it contains too few fruits and vegetables, not enough fiber, not enough fat, or too few calories. The glycemic index is too high or too low, the nutritional content of its staples are not good enough, there is too much or too little of something.

Who rates what we are eating now? We simply pig out on everything from pizza, to fast food, to snacks (did you know that potato chips are the most popular snack food in America - accompanying 32% of our lunches?), desserts, ice cream and beer.

While it would be nice, I suppose, to have a population who ate only healthy foods, in moderation, exercised daily, and took care to ingest at least the minimum requirement of vitamins and minerals, that is not reality, my friend. We overeat on all the wrong foods, we avoid regular exercise like the plague, and huff and puff our way into enlarged bodies that are twenty to fifty pounds heavier than our frames deserve.

Any way that we can take off some or all of that weight is worthwhile. No one is going to stay on any of the popular diets for a lifetime, let's face it. We look at them as temporary (which is part of the problem, but I digress) fixes. The last thing we need are experts who make us afraid to start because we might not be obtaining the right nutrition. Or do we take a certain degree of self-satisfaction in telling ourselves that we can't start until the "perfect diet" is identified?

Are we eating the right way without a diet? No, our nutrition is still deplorable, it's just that we are eating a lot of everything. Let's have at least one expert come out and truthfully report that no matter the deficiencies of any specific diet - going on it is absolutely better than eating the way we are now!

Let's get our collective weight down, and then start worrying about nutrition and health. Diabetes, heart attacks, and gall bladders care a lot less about what we eat than how much.

Start a diet, ANY diet, and follow through for a few weeks and I guarantee you'll be in a much better place, physically and mentally, to start looking after your health and long term fitness than when hemmed in by too much blubber, reading scare stories from the media about how your intended diet is somehow unbalanced.

Virginia Bola is a licensed psychologist and an admitted diet fanatic. She specializes in therapeutic reframing and the effects of attitudes and motivation on individual goals. The author of The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a free ezine, The Worker's Edge, she recently completed a psychologically-based weight control book: Diet with an Attitude: A Weight Loss Workbook. She can be reached at http://www.DietWithAnAttitude.com


MORE RESOURCES:

Call 4 Action: Marketing Of 'Weight Loss' Berry Drawing Fire
MSNBC - 13 hours ago
Dietician Lesli Bonci said there are no studies to back up any weight loss claims of the berries. They actually have fewer cancer-fighting particles than ...
Warning issued about diet supplements ABC7Chicago.com
Acai Promoters Targeted by BBB, Arizona Natural Products Marketplace
all 58 news articles


San Francisco Chronicle

Judd Signs on For Weight Loss Brand
San Francisco Chronicle,  USA - 6 hours ago
Country singer Wynonna Judd is getting in shape for 2009 as the new face of a weight-loss product. The star, 44, will front slimming pills Alli, ...
Wynonna Partners With Weight Loss Aid Country Weekly
GSK Signs Wynonna Judd to Endorse Alli, Its Flagging Weight Loss Drug BNET
Credit: Arnold Turner/WireImage People Magazine
PR Newswire (press release) - Radar Online
all 34 news articles


guardian.co.uk

Steve Jobs' weight loss may be linked to his earlier cancer ...
San Jose Mercury News,  USA - Jan 5, 2009
(MARIA J. AVILA/MERCURY NEWS) Apple CEO Steve Jobs' recent weight loss may be linked to his prior surgery for pancreatic cancer and is likely treatable, ...
Video: Steve Jobs Weight Loss Due to Hormone Imbalance AssociatedPress
Steve Jobs Says Hormone Imbalance Caused Weight Loss Bloomberg
Apple's Jobs Blames Weight Loss on Hormones PC Magazine
Taipei Times - Computerworld
all 2,847 news articles


Washington Times

Researchers question whether physical activity contributes to ...
Austin American-Statesman, TX - 10 hours ago
A study, led by a team at Loyola University in Maywood, Ill., questions whether physical activity is important for weight loss. The study compared African ...
Activity Shown To Be Less Important for Weight Loss Than Food eMaxHealth.com
all 13 news articles


USA Today

Weight loss tip of 2008: 'The Write Diet'
Examiner.com - 16 hours ago
University-based weight-loss experts and a handful of smaller research studies also have verified that writing down the food and calories you eat each day ...
The key to weight loss: portion control Globe and Mail
EAT THIS, NOT THAT! SUPERMARKET SURVIVAL GUIDE The No-Diet Weight ... Earthtimes (press release)
Eat less, add flavor, lose the weight Boston Globe
WISC - Liberty Tribune
all 26 news articles


A look at weight-loss spokeswomen
Chicago Tribune, United States - 21 hours ago
The actress will continue as a spokeswoman for the weight-loss chain, People.com reports, noting that Latifah, 38, shed 20 pounds in 2008 while maintaining ...


New York Daily News

Food Banks to Benefit from Weight Loss Challenge
Promo Magazine, NY - 15 hours ago
General Mills, NBC’s “Biggest Loser” and Feeding America are collaborating on a weight loss challenge that will deliver a pound of groceries to local food ...
Weight loss program benefits Winchester News Gazette
Let the weight loss begin Martinsburg Journal
'The Biggest Loser: Couples' cuts nine contestants in opening twist Reality TV World
Zap2it.com - Entertainment Weekly
all 83 news articles


PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung)

Actor talks about wife's weight loss
KOKI FOX 23, OK - 2 hours ago
... Paul Bettany has been forced to go public with a family tragedy in an effort to stop the media commenting on his wife Jennifer Connelly's weight loss. ...
Paul Bettany Talks Wife’s Weight Loss Just Jared
Husband Explains Jennifer Connelly's Dramatic Weight Loss Hollyscoop
Stress to Blame for Jennifer Connelly's Weight Loss OK! Magazine
Celebuzz - X17 Online
all 37 news articles


Weight loss puts area resident in national spotlight
Keokuk Gate City Daily, IA - 13 hours ago
By Robin Delaney/MVM News Network NAUVOO, Ill. - Losing 45 pounds in six months has many rewards (a lot of positive attention, a new wardrobe of a much ...
Tri-state resident featured in People ConnectTriStates.com powered by KHQA
all 2 news articles


Studies Look at High Blood Pressure Control Among Blacks, Weight ...
Kaiser network.org, DC - 13 hours ago
A telephone survey conducted from November 2005 to January 2006 asked 3500 US adults about their weight-loss practices and beliefs. Seven methods of weight ...

Weight-Loss - Google News

home | site map
© 2006