Weight Loss: Understanding Height Development Patterns for Healthier Body Management

Between Women

She Lost Weight by Stopping Dieting

Cindy Quiat, a travel agent in Flemingham County, Massachusetts, successfully lost 70 pounds two years ago by stopping dieting and replacing it with exercise. Here's her story.

The word "diet" should be removed from the dictionary; dieting doesn't work.

I started battling obesity in my sophomore year of college, trying everything—weight loss centers, takeout meals, diet drinks, and diets. Each method offered a glimmer of hope, a promise of quick and easy weight loss, and all worked for a time. But the weight would quickly slip back, returning to its previous level, or even frustratingly increasing.

Shortly after graduating from college, I was incredibly fat, heavier than ever before. I couldn't bear to look in the mirror. I hated myself; I felt hopeless. I knew I had to do something to change myself. I ended an unpleasant relationship, found a new job, and decided to do something to lose weight. Since various diet plans weren't working for me, I sought a new strategy: I started exercising at the gym.

Believe me, at my weight, going to the gym wasn't easy. At first, I couldn't do much, but I persisted and gradually improved. My weight started to drop. Now I go five times a week and I'm gradually becoming addicted.

When I started taking exercise seriously, my life got back on track. I ate better, with less fat and more vegetables in my diet.

Now, if I eat a fast-food hamburger, my stomach feels uncomfortable. I eat a very rich variety of vegetables. I've discovered that small changes can add up; for example, when eating a sandwich, I cut back on some butter and cheese; I can eat two slices of pizza instead of five.

Losing weight, like life, is all about choices. If I choose a piece of candy as a snack, then I decide to eat less at my main meal that evening. If I don't want to go to the gym, then I decide to eat less that day. If I do eat a lot one day, I tell myself, "It's nothing, it's just one day out of 365."

Losing 70 pounds and gaining boundless energy feels amazing. I'm never dieting again. Stop clinging to those restrictive dieting ideas, re-equip yourself, and stop dieting.

Fat consists of tiny protein molecules and different types of enzymes that help the body burn or store fat. Dieting increases the number of enzymes used to store fat while decreasing the number of enzymes used to burn fat.

3. Dieting slows down your metabolism. By dieting, you risk nutritional deficiencies because nutrient absorption is closely related to calorie (energy) absorption. Reducing calorie absorption triggers a complex chain reaction that ultimately causes the metabolic system to stop burning calories. So, while you might lose weight initially by cutting calories, it's difficult to lose weight in the end. Then, when you start eating normally again, your metabolic system often needs time to return to normal, so your weight may actually increase. 4. Dieting can exacerbate resistance. The more you focus on what you can and cannot eat, the more you feel deprived, according to Dr. Susan Olson.

Case Study: How She Overcame "Hunger Syndrome"

Anita Smith could be considered a professional dieter. Her current strategy is to restrict her diet during the weekdays so she can indulge on the weekend. A typical weekday diet: Breakfast: dry bread and coffee; Lunch: a large salad; Dinner: chicken or fish with vegetables and rice. But on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings, she usually eats out and has a big meal. Anita not only didn't lose weight, but her weight gradually increased. What went wrong with her?

Anita wasn't just a professional dieter, but a typical dieter. Restricting calories and fat during the weekdays and then indulging on the weekend is typical of typical dieters. This is one of the many reasons why dieting fails.

Anita ate too little throughout the week, so of course she ate too much on the weekend. Take her breakfast, for example. It's entirely composed of carbohydrates. So low in calories, it's burned off in just three hours. As a result, she's starving before noon. Her lunch salad, while containing fiber, seems to fill her up, but it's still very low in calories. Even her "healthy" dinner can't compensate for the day's energy expenditure. So, as the weekend approaches, Anita's anticipation of what she truly craves—more calories and fat—leads to her indulging in all sorts of high-fat, high-calorie foods. The result is that a week's "good" performance is completely wasted—all ruined by the short three-day weekend.

If she were to calculate her total calorie expenditure for the entire week, she would surely find that she consumes more calories than she burns. This is why she doesn't lose weight, but instead gains it.

Anita's frequent restaurant overeating is also a problem, as she rarely controls what she eats there. Like all other standard dieters, she always treated eating out as a celebration rather than a regular meal, often consuming things she would never eat at home.

Anita would have more control if she planned her meals more rationally during the week and ordered more wisely at restaurants. Of course, she also needed to cut back; binge eating from start to finish wouldn't help her lose weight. If she incorporated low-fat instead of fat-free foods into her diet and didn't restrict her calorie intake so strictly during the weekdays, she could minimize her weekend cravings and have enough willpower to resist the temptations of sweets and aromas, avoiding or at least reducing their consumption. Also, treating weekends as two days instead of three would benefit her.

In this way, her weight would gradually decrease, even if not as quickly as ice cream melting, but it would still be a steady, gradual reduction.