Diet Palooza

Yesterday on The View, Whoopie Goldberg and Sherri Shepherd interviewed several diet "gurus" to find the best diet for 2010.  I didn't catch the whole thing because I was in a medical office, waiting to have my knee x-rayed, but I caught a good bit.  One program involved cutting out all sugar, and selecting a lettuce wrapped bacon cheese burger with fries over fruit and yogurt.  Another advocated for butter, milk and eggs to even out your hormones, which really drove a diet - not food and exercise.  We heard from the cookie diet MD, and from an at home cleanse system. 

The cookie diet MD said that for a system to work, it has to work fast.  If people don't lose a ton of weight fast, they will lose interest and they won't stick with it.  That's an interesting statement.  He's an MD, I'm sure he's read all the research we have that shows that the slower you lose the weight, the longer you keep it off.  I believe that's true in most cases.  If your body drops the weight fast, it will put it back on just as fast, or faster.  If you gradually lose weight over time, incorporating long term changes into your life, the change will last longer.

I do think he has a point, though.  When we see TV shows like the Biggest Loser, which I caught the second half of last night, and we see people losing 20-30 (and more) lbs their first week on a diet, our expectations get skewed.  How can a new dieter feel happy with a 3 lb loss when they just saw someone else lose 23?  It's a tough call.  Also, seeing the weight drop so fast is very encouraging.  Who wouldn't stick with a diet that gave you double digit losses each week?

I think if you can lose weight fast, under medical supervision, and you learn to make lifelong changes during that time, more power to you.  I'm not convinced it's the best or safest way, but I can see how it keeps people interested.  Watching the show last night, I thought that I should just take a week off or a month off and work out 7 hours/day to jump start my weight loss...but then I thought that's a crazy plan.  Every personal trainer and MD I have ever talked to or read in my entire life (most of which has been spent trying to lose weight) has said that exercise should be moderate.  Working out more than an hour a day is counterproductive, and unless you are actively taking in fuel (calories) during your extended workout, you will start to burn away muscle, giving way to fatigue, possible injuries, causing damage to your immune system, etc...  Is that not true?

I can't let a television show, with every incentive to use smoke and mirrors to get that WOW from the audience, convince me of something all of my instincts and research and information from experts have told me all along.  I haven't watched the show long enough to know if they ever show you a full day on the ranch.  That is what I'd like to see.  Exactly what are they eating, exactly what "supplements" are they giving, exactly what work out are they doing, etc...  Do they ever show that?  If not, why not? 

I think the show sets unrealistic guidelines.  That's obvious.  I think they hide too much behind the scenes, and while it can be helpful if you know enough to weed through the sensationalism (and tricks) to get the good fitness and nutrition tips, I worry that people, especially young people, at home will give up on their weight loss programs if they don't deliver the results they see on the Biggest Loser, or even the results that are promised by the weight loss "guru's" on shows like The View.

I wish I had started making a documentary of my weight loss journey before I had lap band surgery, so I could show the things I did to get the results I did, and the things I did or didn't do to gain some weight back in the middle of my journey.  I'm going to start now, though.  I'm going to film my journey of training for the sprint triathlon.  I'll talk about the foods I'm eating, and the calories I consume each day.  I'll show my work outs, and my weekly weigh in results.  It will be a realistic picture of an agressive weight loss journey, of someone who had lap band surgery as well.  Obviously, it's not going to be a journey that everyone can relate to, but I think it's good to show other journeys as well, to present a more holistic picture.

I'm grabbing my camera now.