Cancer as a new fad diet?
Cancer as a new fad diet was reported in a recent article in Cosmopolitan Magazine titled:
has since been modified to remove the association of a major health condition being the main focus for helping losing weight.
Cancer, or any other serious medical condition cannot be promoted as a means to help you lose weight. These conditions do however often lead to weight loss as a "side effect" or motivates the person to lead a healthier life in the future. Losing excess weight, stopping smoking and reducing alcohol intake are some of the main lifestyle changes recommended to improve overall health.
The move by Cosmopolitan to alter the message is to be welcomed, but what do we need to learn from diet related articles and subsequent social media hysteria such as this?
What are the main points of the article?
The female dieter in this case had suffered a variety of health scares over a relatively short period of time which also coincided with, or motivated her to start, losing weight. The "31-year-old Australian mom Simone Harbinson" lost 44lbs without doing any exercise according to the article. The following line was deleted as a result of the negative responses:
"Simone's weight loss success is proof that ANYONE can lose weight without breaking a sweat simply by eating more mindfully—no gym required."
This piece, and the responses on social media, demonstrate the lack of understanding when it comes to healthy weight loss. The role of exercise is discussed later in this article but it is definitely possible to lose weight without going to the gym.
The comments ranged from rants such as "Cancer is not a diet plan. Delete this," Tweeted by ex-NFL player Matthew Cherry, to positive comments such as this from "bee_thebod" on Instagram; "Keep sharing your story Simone! It inspires many 😘"
Hysteria, both positive and negative, usually follows many diet advice and weight loss claims. Lack of sound scientific knowledge or plain quackery fuels much of the unsound advice when it comes to dieting and weight loss.
When you look more closely, this is no more than marketing for The Bod diet plan, through the various Cosmopolitan channels, using this person's coinciding health issues as a platform for producing chatter and promotion.
It is highly important to know what diet advice should be taken and what should be discarded. Your medical health can easily be compromised by taking no action on excess body weight and by taking the wrong weight loss advice. For some people, Type 2 diabetics or Warfarin patients for example, the wrong advice could be dangerous, even fatal. Healthy weight loss is an absolute requirement when dieting.
But what do we mean by "healthy" weight loss?
Weight loss ultimately comes from a restriction of calorie intake, increased calorie expenditure, or a combination of both to a level below that needed by the individual to maintain their weight. The over-riding necessity is to also maintain your nutritional status, with appropriate intake of the essential nutrients consumed on a daily basis. If you are managing to regularly maintain this optimal nutrition status you would be deemed nutritionally healthy whether dieting or not.
The issue when losing weight is how do you maintain this healthy nutritional status when you are needing to restrict your Calories below that needed to maintain your weight? To lose weight you are required to eat less Calories than you need and so are you going to be healthy? Remember we are regularly told to eat MORE food, in the form of fruit and vegetables because we are, as a nation. not healthy enough. Is it 5-a-day or 10-a-day? Fruit is very high in sugar yet we are facing a sugar tax. Confusing isn't it?
It is important to note that when dealing with solely conventional foods:
"it is virtually impossible to construct a nutrient-complete diet that adds up to less than 1200 Calories daily"
The rate of weight loss is deemed healthy if you maintain your nutritional health.
So how did she lose weight without exercise?
Exercise can be very important for your overall health. Exercise tones your body and keeps you physically fit so exercise should always be included in your daily routine where possible.
Remember the health we are now talking about has nothing to do with your nutritional health.
FACT: It takes approx 35 miles of physical exercise, for example running or walking, to burn off the same Calories contained in a single 1lb of fat!
That's equivalent to doing 5 miles a day, 7 days a week. Could you maintain that for more than a few weeks? A majority of people cannot do anywhere near this amount of exercise just through lack of time.
The female in this article had apparently lost 44lbs through no exercise. Running, swimming etc was not possible for this person due to her medical issues but I doubt that she was confined to her bed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Some form of exercise would have been carried out; walking to the bathroom at the very least. As you can see the levels of exercise she would have been doing equates to very little weight loss. This patient lost her weight by modifying her food intake.
Modifying your intake of food does have more of an effect on your weight than the Calorie burn resulting from exercising. If this were not true then every person confined to a wheelchair or bedridden, for example, would have a serious weight issue. We know this is not the case.
Weight loss is definitely possible without exercise, it is just more healthy overall to do some regular daily exercise.
Need guidance?
Lipotrim is a nutritionally complete weight management programme delivered only by healthcare professionals. Highly trained medically, they are ideally placed to offer sound diet and weight loss advice.
Contact your local Pharmacy or contact Lipotrim direct on 0800 413 735 to learn more
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