Please note: the information contained within this excerpt is intended for educational purposes. It is not intended to replace advice given by healing professionals for those whose conditions require them.

Diets Don't Work (a Chapter From Helen's Book: Lose Fat, Gain Health ) by Helen Hall, MEd

Have you dieted at some stage of your life? Perhaps you have dieted a lot - every time a new diet hit the stands.

A very high percentage of women will respond positively to this question. As more men are becoming body image aware, they are also "trying" diets to lose the gut. If you are the dieting kind of person, you probably have dieted most of your life. Let me ask you this: if diets do work, why are you reading yet another book that might hold the key to your fat reduction woes? The evidence is also on the news stands. If you scan the front covers of popular magazines, the word "diet" or something similar is splashed in big bold letters to get your attention.

Why are you still searching for 'THE diet'? Perhaps it is because all your previous attempts to diet have failed!

If you think you are going to find THE diet to end all diets in this book, put the book down now. I will save you time pawing your way through the book. Right now, I can tell you that this is not a diet book. The word 'diet' brings with it such strong connotations (to me) of bad feelings, denial, anguish, failure, and eventually, long term ill health, that I don't use the word at all. I would rather refer to an "eating regime" so that my clients don't think I am recommending a diet at all. I haven't written in this book THE diet that will end your yo-yo dieting ways. What I HAVE done will surprise even the most ardent 'dieter'. My message is clear - this is not a diet.

Diets are insidiously a two part program. There is the diet phase and there is the post-diet (not diet) phase. It is the second part of the program that the writers of the diets don't tell you about. What do you do when you aren't on the diet? If it is a 'diet', there is always the 'not diet' phase to deal with.

If you have dieted in the past or are currently or constantly setting the Monday diet intention and are 'trying' to diet, please read on.

Let us reflect momentarily on your past attempts to diet.

1. You dieted for a while somehow drastically changing your eating habits.

2. You lost something that showed up on the scales as a loss of weight (perhaps you went down a size in your clothes).

3. Eventually you stop dieting.

4. You regain what you had lost - plus some.

5. You are inspired to try another diet because someone famous or popular is reported to have 'found' their body using this diet.

6 (or is it 3) Eventually you stop dieting.

7 (or is it 4) You regain what you had lost - plus some.
This goes on for years. In fact, a lifetime for some. Is this how you want to live your lifetime?

If you are ready to end the endless cycle of losing a bit then gaining some more - losing a bit then gaining a whole lot more, I hope you will read this book in its entirety. All of the information contained within is important for you to know AND your body will thank you. The reading will give meaning to why your past efforts have eventually failed, why you are bigger than you have ever been, why you are still searching, and what you can do to enjoy your life without excessive denial ...... for as long as you live.
 
Firstly, I would like to add meaning to your previous attempts and, hopefully, steer you away from future despondency when the next diet doesn't work. No more dieting. It doesn't matter what it is called - it doesn't matter who designed it - it certainly doesn't matter how bad you feel during it or how arduous it is - it won't work for you or your health in the long term.

Most of Australia is on a diet. America is worse. In fact, most of the diets come to our shores from there. If not a "diet" kind of diet, they are following a general plan of 'low fat' eating. That is what the media has 'educated' us to believe is best for our health. Most people bought the ticket - got on the ride - and are still trying to stay on the ride. They are getting fatter and more unhealthy as the months and years roll on. I know because these are the people who come to me for help. They think they are doing all the right things - eating 'low fat' this and 'no fat' that - proudly stating that they don't put any butter on their bread. Yet, they look like death warmed up, wake up each morning feeling like Costa Tzu after 10 rounds, and are confused and disempowered like deer caught in headlights.
 
You go on them - you go off them.

We hear people saying that they are "ON a diet" but do we hear them announce when they are OFF it? No. Probably because it carries with it an admission of failure. What are they doing when they are not ON a diet? Eating poorly.
Unfortunately the nature of dieting is such that it is short term. Diets are not sustainable and usually not very balanced or health promoting. Ask anyone who has dieted in the past, how many different diets have they tried and they will tell you that it is more than one. Why do they need to try different diets? Because they can't stay on the "diet" for ever. It is inevitable that they will come off it because diets, by their very nature, are not healthy and not sustainable.
 
If diets worked, there would only be one of them.

Take a look along the front row (nearest the cash register) at the newsagent. There is always a headline that entices you to pick up the magazine and buy it using a diet as bait. I suppose that you are keen to take the bait and buy the latest, newest diet because the ones you have tried before (perhaps from the same magazine) have not been sustainable.

It is this fact that the magazine editors know so well. I am not about to bash them for doing their job - they do a tremendous job of entertaining us through visual stimulation. They do their research and their surveys well. In fact, they do their job very well. They are trying everything they know to get you to buy their magazine. It is true most of the demographic slice of the population who buy their magazines are constantly searching for the "diet" that works. Scan the shelves and the headlines on the magazines that are designed to attract your attention and possibly even your money. Why do they publish new diets and the latest news on the eating habits of Hollywood stars so regularly? Because it sells their magazines. It's bait and you are the fish.

When the editors of the magazines are deciding what goes in the magazine, are they thinking about your health? No. They are not in the health profession. They are in media - a form of entertainment. Are they thinking about what is going to sell their magazine better? Yes.

Is their dietary information well founded and health promoting? In most cases - no. Do you know which stories are closer to the truth? Perhaps not yet.
 
Think about the motive behind every advertisement that you see in the media.
From this point forward, be a smart recipient of advertising. You can't escape it so let's get really smart and not be so vulnerable to the 'buy me' punches. Advertisers want you to be 'knocked out' quite literally by their campaigns that are backed by enormous 'bait' budgets. It is my wish that you become less of an easy target than advertisers think you are.

Every time you see an advertisement for food or drinks, ask yourself this question: "What are they trying to do?" The answer: "Sell their product" and "Make money". Fair enough. This is the business they in - they need to survive. They will use every trick in the book to influence you to buy. They will even use strong, fit, extraordinary athletes to sell a product that, if they ate, would not result in that body that is doing the selling.
Why do athletes do this? They need to survive also. No-one is paying them to run around the track. The companies who offer contracts for athletes to promote their products are the big ones. Unfortunately the big ones are not necessarily the health promoting ones.

You would think I was crazy if I asked you to go to the butcher to buy a garden hose or ask a plumber to fix your scratched car bumper. Don't go to the newsagency to buy your health and nutrition knowledge. There might be some accurate information in that haystack somewhere, but the chances of you finding it are minuscule. Avoid the gamble of being mis-educated or misled.

Just as an aside: I actually do some research from the newsagency. I collect all kinds of magazines from the moderate general fitness types to the incredible hulk types. I am researching what it is that is being projected out there that is influencing my clients and you. I need to know what is popular and what you might be 'learning'. I do this so that I know what I am up against and what type of fire extinguisher I need to use.
 
Be wary. Be smart. Advertisers do NOT have your health at heart.
 
There's a 'blowup' syndrome.
Have you noticed people - perhaps even yourself - lose 'weight' on a 'diet' and then regain the weight when the 'diet' ends? Do you notice that they are bigger and carrying more fat as the years go by? What happened to the bride who looked so fabulous on her wedding day? Do you know someone who has 'blown up' lately?

There is something more sinister happening after they come off the diet. It is worse than just the feeling of failure. It causes them to quite literally "blow up" more each time. This might be the most important part of this book so ..... if you remember only one thing from this book ..... I hope it is this information that follows.
 
Here's what happens when you follow a 'diet'.

Before you begin a diet, you are usually feeling pretty lousy about yourself. Maybe you have been overindulging for a while. Perhaps you have become a bit softer in those traditional fat storage areas - you know the ones. Perhaps your clothes have shrunk and you don't feel very comfortable in them any more. Something sparks your interest in the latest diet sensation. The words on the front page of the magazine are talking to YOU. Just a few dollars and some change separates you from the answer to your prayers in the latest issue of whatever has the brightest most eye catching cover on a magazine. Perhaps it is a number one selling book with a guilt wrenching title that offers hope for what you know has been a lifestyle of self abuse. You take the 'bait' to the sales counter.

Now that you think you have the information that will solve all your problems - the diet to 'do it for you', you go out and celebrate for tomorrow your life (as you know it) ends. You are "going on a diet tomorrow". That is such a frequently heard statement. Isn't it true that we humans want that which we cannot have even more than if it was available to us all the time? The forbidden fruit tastes better.
'D' day arrives.

Most often, this stands for 'dread' or 'discipline' or 'denial' as well as 'diet'.
 
You start the 'diet' and follow its edict like a new religion. The bathroom scales are placed in the middle of the floor and the kitchen scales come out of the cupboard for quick access. Your motivation is high - it's better than drugs. You are convinced that you have found THE 'diet' that is going to change your life. You are about to morph yourself into a new body. The kitchen scales become the first step in your food preparation and you become the obsessed mathematician in the kitchen. Food becomes an object of portions, points and pounds/grams.

Then, unfortunately, you do notice a drop in weight as measured by your friendly bathroom scales. I say unfortunately because this is what gets you to 'stick with it' for a while longer and to buy the next diet selling headline magazine. Despite feeling like you are about to faint constantly, you convince yourself that you are happy and go about your day and continue the 'diet' for as long as possible.

Usually your social life pops its head up and you go out with friends - eventually. The food looks and smells so good that your attention moves from the chosen company and the great atmosphere to the food exclusively. You lose control of your eyes. They become magnetized to the food. Your nostrils flare unselfconsciously in an attempt to savor the air more fully. You inhale more calories than you have eaten all day. Lastly, your brain shuts down. You are amnesiac about your publicly stated diet. You allow your body to join your eyes at the buffet and you load up your plate with food - real food. Your body, your mind, your entire being thanks you for taking this step away from the diet and towards food.
 
You 'blow out' because your body is asking for 'real' food and your taste buds have all but moved out to seek employment somewhere else. Is it a little blow out? Well - that depends on how restrictive the diet has been. Usually it is a big blow out because you have been in such denial for so long, you virtually roll in the food like a dog on a clean rug.

You forget you were ever on a diet and continue making your food choices with your taste buds and nostrils. Inevitably you get bigger and bigger until you take some more 'bait' and try another diet. This is the 'deadly' cycle most people go through in their attempts to lose bodyfat. I have chosen my words very carefully. Dieting IS a deadly cycle. Please read on to find out how diets can kill.
 
Sometimes the focus on diet is related to a significant event in people's lives. They are getting married and want to look their best for the day. There is a phenomena that women seem to 'catch' when they set the wedding date. Apparently they are supposed to be small. Men don't suffer from this affliction.
 
Sometimes it is a holiday that motivates people to trim down. They want to be able to wear swimmers in public without frightening the children off the beach. Think about it - frightening it is from a child's angle of sight. Often the goal is not far away so they seek out the most drastic 'diet' they can find because they only have a short time to achieve an absolute miracle. They might look great for their holiday but then return to normal, unfocused, mis-educated eating habits and begin to 'blow up' again.
If you pursue one of the large "weight loss programs" you will find that they encourage 'weight loss'. In fact, they reward it and note it as the ultimate achievement. Take a look at their advertising programs. They often use familiar faces with 'before' and 'after' photographs. These people are earning money endorsing the program. Do you think they would dare get fat again?

How many times do people go back onto such programs? Why aren't they sustainable? I've had new clients say, "I've been on and off the ............. program for years". Why keep going back to something that clearly is not sustainable? I don't want any repeat business with my program.

Another way that people try to lose the fat is by using 'gizmos' and 'gadgets'. These are my terms for things that aren't natural that people use to try to rid themselves of fat. They include: pills, stimulants, staples, coils, suction and synthetic 'diet' food. It is disturbing to me what people will do to their body in order to lose bodyfat. It doesn't have to be like that.

I can remember as a kid, my father 'dieted'. He ate 'slimming biscuits'. He was a man of huge proportions in every sense - a Principal of a High School and quite overfat. Most described him as a 'big' man. I now know that another descriptor would have been more accurate. He went to work trying to function with all the stress of that kind of responsibility on a diet biscuit! At lunch time he had another biscuit! The evening meal was the only real meal he ate all day. He was starving himself.
Needless to say, he got "bigger" as the years passed until he developed Diabetes Mellitus (adult onset diabetes). Then - and only then - did he take nutrition seriously. He lost all the excess fat with a simple, yet diligent, focus on healthy eating. There actually was a skinny man inside that 'big' man.
  
Health Warning Ahead

When looking at the long term effects of diets ...... they don't work. In most instances they seriously affect your health - negatively. Now let's get a bit physiological in order to further understand why diets don't work. Have you noticed when you eat that your body temperature goes up a little? You feel a bit warmer after eating than you did prior to eating. That is your metabolism firing up in order to digest the food. If you restrict your food intake, over time your metabolic rate slows. If your metabolism is slower than before the diet and you return to normal eating, your body will not burn the calories contained in the meal as fuel. It will store them as bodyfat.
 
NOTE:
Dieting messes with your metabolic rate.
If you continue to go on diets that are calorie restricted and then come off them, your metabolic rate will slow so much that even a tiny amount of food will be stored as fat. Some of the seriously overfat (or medically termed "morbidly obese") people don't eat enough food , or get enough nutrition, to sustain life. They suffer from malnutrition not from a lack of availability of nutritious food - there's plenty of it out there - but from a controlled lack of ingestion - they don't eat enough of it.
They store it as fat and, in fact, get fatter, because there is virtually no fire to burn the food as energy.
 
Most diets are a calorie reduction from what you are used to - so - you do lose weight initially. With a reduction in calories, however, your metabolism slows and when you eventually come off this diet (because you feel so bad on it), you will store what is now excess caloric intake as fat. It won't be long before you will be fatter and searching for another diet.

It is important for me to know if a new client has dieted previously because I can then make a reasonable assumption that their metabolic rate will be slower than someone who hasn't. Some metabolic rates are so sluggish that the body no longer signals hunger. Why would it continue talking to someone (you) when you never reply to a simple request for food? Even that function goes to sleep.

It does this because it actually tries to keep itself alive. Now there's a novel thought.
 
We all have a unique metabolic rate.
This is called your Basal Metabolic Rate*. This is the total heat produced by the chemical reactions and mechanical work of the body when at rest. Even while asleep your metabolism is motoring along. Your true metabolic rate is measured 12 hours after eating so that it is in a post absorptive state (not working to absorb food); while reclining in a mentally and physically relaxed state; in a room with a controlled temperature of 20 - 25 degrees Celsius. This is apparently as relaxed as we can be while still maintaining vital organ function which includes breathing. This is your "energy cost of living" - your basal metabolic rate BMR.

Why do some people have a higher BMR than others? Have you noticed that sleeping with your partner is like sleeping with a raging furnace?

Conversely, if you feel like a frog with cold extremities (not including smokers - that's another story), your BMR is very low. It's not ticking over fast enough to produce enough body heat to keep you warm. Men, in general, usually have a higher BMR because they more muscles than women. Musculature is very metabolically active during rest. That means it takes more energy to maintain muscle - even when sleeping. The more muscle they build, the higher their BMR and the higher their core body temperature. Fat, on the other hand, is metabolically sluggish. This means it takes very little physiological energy to maintain it. People with more fat than muscle have a slower BMR.
 
Wouldn't it be good if we could increase our own resting metabolic rate so that you are producing more heat with less effort? You can.

It is possible and, in fact, it is desirable. I want you to enhance your metabolic rate. You want to reduce your bodyfat, right? Your metabolic rate needs to be increased so that you burn some of that stored bodyfat you've saved for the hibernation that you never begin or the famine that never comes. My program will improve your metabolic rate.

If you want to maintain your current bodyfat levels, all you have to do is to 'output' the same amount of energy that you 'intake'. The three factors that add up to your total energy output are heat/metabolism, work/activity, and energy storage. My program will allow all three energy output sources to be enhanced.
  
Diets are usually low calorie by nature

Why do the programs who supply food to your door work? It is because they are counting the calories and what they are providing is of lower caloric value than what you have been giving your body previously. BUT (and this is the big butt - pun) - when you reduce your caloric intake, your metabolism slows down.
Unfortunately, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but "you are not as smart as you would like to think you are - your body is much smarter". It will always adjust it's metabolic rate to align with what 'it thinks' is available food. If it experiences a shortage of food, the survival mode will kick in to override whatever program your brain is on and will ensure that the body does not burn too much fuel. It does not like running out. The less you eat, the slower the metabolism. It can even grind to almost a halt.

For all those people who TRY to lose fat by restricting their intake of food (and probably nutrition as a whole) please note again: when you reduce your caloric intake, your metabolism slows down. These are the people who think they have the 'will power' to eat less. I have seen many people try to lose bodyfat this way by restricting their intake. Please take this message seriously - don't do it.
  
If you try, this is what will happen:

• You might start off well because you believe you have been so 'bad' that you see it as 'serving time' - this kind of punishment might even feel good to you for a while.

• You perhaps don't know which food is the type that puts the fat on so you restrict all food types - this reduces your nutritional intake substantially.

• You might feel lethargic and get the latest version of the cold/flu.

• Your metabolism slows significantly to match the food intake.

• You notice you are not losing 'weight' any more so you restrict your intake even more.

• Your metabolism matches this restricted intake quickly and you plateau faster.

• With no other information other than your own experiences, you know you lost some 'weight' when you first started so you continue to repeat the cycle of ever decreasing your intake until you are living your day on an apple.

• Inevitably you might get sick.

• Inevitably you will have to return to normal eating - your brain, your taste buds, your body is screaming for this normality. Some people only last a couple of days because the body is screaming so loudly for real nutrition and a sustainable quantity that they crash off the 'diet' by the evening meal time.

• Because you have adversely affected your metabolism, your body stored the (now) excess food intake as fat - you are soon fatter than ever.

• You set a date to resume the food restricted 'diet' and you go through the cycle all over again.
If this isn't you I am describing - you probably know someone who is gradually 'blowing up' don't you. Save them, please - it is SO bad for their health let alone what it is doing to their self esteem and morale. There are more copies of this book where this came from. Give them a gift that will save them from this anguish and, quite literally, save their life.
 
WARNING!

Dieting can kill you.

Diets most often focus on the weight loss or, at best, fat loss. Most don't focus on nutritional balance. If there is a caloric reduction in food intake, there most likely is a nutritional reduction as well.

If your daily nutritional needs are not being met through your food intake, your body (being the smart one who wants to survive) will take what it needs from storage. Your food is stored not only as fat but is stored in your muscles as well. In most cases, energy is more readily available from your muscles so they are the first port of call when you don't give your body what it needs.

The result is a reduction/loss of muscle mass. This process is called 'catabolism'. This is not too dissimilar to the 'eating of others' term - cannibalism. The difference is that you are eating yourself.

Why?

Because you won't give your body what it needs nutritionally.

Why?

Because you are trying to be thin. All your muscles are affected by this slow but deliberate self-starvation. You become weaker. Remember when I said that men usually have a higher metabolic rate because they have more musculature? When you 'eat' your own muscles for fuel, you are destroying the very thing that will help you burn bodyfat 24 hours a day - your muscles. Your metabolism slows significantly when you reduce (eat) your musculature.
 
Oh - by the way!

Your heart is a muscle too.

Your body doesn't differentiate between biceps muscle and heart muscle. It needs fuel. It doesn't want to die. It will take whatever it needs from any available source. When your skeletal muscles reduces to the point of not being able to do their job - you feel weak. When your heart muscle reduces in size to the point where it can't do it's job - you die.
 
Here's what to do to take care of your metabolism.

Your metabolism will increase if you increase your food intake and increase your lean muscle mass. Send a clear message that there IS a supermarket just around the corner. Let your body go ahead and burn your food/fuel confident in the knowledge that there is plenty where that came from. Don't give your body mixed messages. Send quality food in frequently throughout the day to keep your metabolism motoring along all day. Build and maintain an adequate amount of lean muscle mass to keep your metabolism motoring along while you sleep. (There are, of course, other benefits to having muscles which I will elaborate in a later section of the book.)
 
Imagine your metabolism is a fire.

Remember our BMR is measured when the body is at rest. Our body is at rest every night. **Light your metabolic fire first thing in the morning. That is, eat within 1 hour of waking.

**Do your aerobic training in the morning to jump start the furnace.

**Eat a well balanced breakfast.

**Toss a log onto the fire frequently throughout the day (eat some well balanced food). That is, midmorning, lunch, mid-afternoon, dinner and, depending on the time you go to bed after dinner, perhaps a late night snack.

**Keep the fire going all day. Eat a balanced meal or snack at least every 3 - 5 hours.

**Try to eat lightly at the end of the day when your metabolism is slowing down and when you are becoming less active.

My Program

It is not a low calorie program. Nor did I just say that you could eat huge quantities of food frequently throughout the day. You are advised to not take any action until you have read the entire program and the educative support material contained in this book.

Come on - you have put your faith (and life) in the 'miracle' diets in the past.
 
Trust my process for a few short weeks of your life.
Now let's commit a small amount of time to my program.

1. Remove the word 'diet' from your vocabulary.

2. Make a promise to yourself and all the people who care about you that you will not diet any more.

3. Leave the fad diets on the shelf.

4. Give your body what it needs - nutritious food.

5. Refer others to this site if see them "blow up". They will thank you.
 
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