Common Sense about Dieting

2/12/2006

Your "diet" has already begun and you will stick to it!

Often you hear different advice about dieting. It can be difficult to tell the difference between what's true and what's not. We've all heard opinions or supposed facts from friends and family, co-workers, and even sometimes on TV. But what of these are just myths that have gone around and are continuing to be recycled from one another.

There are many misleading statements about dieting. One example is eating at night will make you gain weight. Well, let's think about that. It's after dinner and you're about to watch a movie or your favorite TV show. Even though you've just eaten, how can you skip the popcorn for this "movie" night? Perhaps on this occasion a lighter dinner could have justified the popcorn as your "movie" snack. But remember this can be a habit-forming activity and it could also be recognized that a snack for every "movie" night isn't necessarily a requirement for an enjoyable viewing experience.

It has also been widely considered that the metabolism has slowed down in the evening and that eating late in the evening would cause increased weight gain. However, I've seen other studies that show what is more important is the amount of food consumed during an entire 24 hour period versus simply what time of the day food is eaten. Some tests have shown that while over one period of time, eating large dinners and small lunches for certain test subjects did not lead to more weight gain than other tests performed that involved large lunches and small dinners.

Another common myth that is believed to be true is: you should deny yourself that which you are craving. It's a matter of self-control really. If you feed into that craving and eat too fast, you will likely each too much of that particular food, thus packing on the calories and leading to weight gain. The key would be to eat slowly and stay focused on the size of the portion you are consuming rather than what the food is. Remember a little bit of most everything is good when there is a "balance." Too much of any one thing usually is a bad thing!

Also, remember the larger the amount of food in one sitting, the more likely your stomach needs to expand, whereas with smaller portions, you can always compensate later with a little extra food or a snack if needed, rather than having forced the matter at the beginning.

Often people try to avoid fattening foods. Some may feel they've blown their diet after a little fattening food with a meal, when later the scale may show a few extra pounds. This is probably mostly fluid that will be gone in a day. Don't get frustrated too quickly when true weight gain is really a slow process. How can a piece of chocolate that weighs only a couple ounces equate to pounds later that evening?

Dieting is not always easy and it can be hard to remain committed. However, taking a different perspective may help the situation. We as human beings need to eat to survive. "Dieting" often sounds like an extra punishing task required of us if we have already become over-weight. We can never say, "I have an eating problem. So I will quit eating." What's the next best thing?

Perhaps we can consider that "dieting" is not simply just a difficult and punishing task that is hard to stick to. I suggest consider "dieting" the label we give the process of regulating what and when we eat. We "balance" the check book; perhaps we can "balance" our eating habits as well. Imagine we spent our money we have in the bank the same way. Spending whatever, whenever! Consider we're often eating whatever, whenever, because we don't expect anyone's going to come knocking on our front door.

If we all must continue eating, then it would be safe to assume eating is a worthy task, and anything worth doing is worth doing right! With this in mind, your "diet" has already begun and you will stick to it, even if you forget all about it tomorrow. The new question about dieting becomes, "What about my diet should devote more attention to?"