Ring in the New Year with an Honest Diet: No Fads Allowed!

Do not eat any carbs. Only drink cabbage soup. Drink a lot of apple cider vinegar. Load up on meats and cheeses. Finally, society has figured out the secret to losing weight: weird faddish diets! I hope you're reading this dripping with sarcasm. It's the New Year, and with that comes New Year's resolutions. For many, the New Year marks a time after the egg nog and snowflake shaped cookies to buckle down and lose some weight. So let's discuss the best way to go about doing just that.

I am here to shout form the mountaintops that there are three ways to lose weight: 1. eat well 2. exercise more 3. eat well and exercise more. The fad diets all sound too good to be true, so many people think it's the quick simple way to lose weight. Well I have some news for you fad dieters: it IS too good to be true. Our bodies consume, digest and burn kilocalories in specific ways that any nutritionist or medical expert can detail; the trick is to understand our bodies and work with what we have. Experts recommend adopting healthy eating habits permanently, rather than impatiently pursuing crash diets. Cabbage soup will not do it!

The American Heart Association (AHA) has a few insights about fad diets that anyone thinking about starting one should take to...well, heart:

• Quick-weight-loss diets usually overemphasize one particular food or type of food. They violate the first principle of good nutrition: Eat a balanced diet that includes a variety of foods. If you are able to stay on such a diet for more than a few weeks, you may develop nutritional deficiencies, because no one type of food has all the nutrients you need for good health. The Cabbage Soup Diet mentioned above is an example. This so-called fat-burning soup is eaten mostly with fruits and vegetables. The diet supposedly helps heart patients lose 10–17 pounds in seven days before surgery. There are no "superfoods." That's why you should eat moderate amounts from all food groups, not large amounts of a few special foods.
• These diets also violate a second important principle of good nutrition: Eating should be enjoyable. These diets are so monotonous and boring that it's almost impossible to stay on them for long periods.
• Many don't encourage physical activity - for example, walking 30 minutes most or all days of the week. Being physically active helps you maintain weight loss over a long time. Physical inactivity is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke.
• Because most quick-weight-loss diets require drastic changes in eating patterns, you can't stay on them for long. Following a regimen for a few weeks won't give you the chance to learn about how to permanently change your eating patterns.
• In addition, many fad diets are based on "food folklore," some dating back to the early 19th century. They have not been documented to be safe in the long term. Ideas about "fat-burning foods" and "food combining" are also classified by the American Heart Association as unsubstantiated myths.

The best way to go about losing weight is to maintain a diet high in nutrient-rich foods (vegetables, whole grains) and to stay active. If you're wondering how much weight is healthy to lose, the AHA suggests one to two pounds per week. It also helps to keep a log when you're really trying to monitor your calorie intake. No matter what other helpful hints there are, the one truth remains: fad diets are not the healthiest way to lose weight – and it most likely will not stay off. Stay away from those and try an honest attempt at really exercising and eating better this year.