Wise Words on Weight
(Page 4 of 5)
August/September 2004
by Walter C. Willett, M.D.
Find a diet that works for you. If you read diet books or keep up with health and nutrition news, you’ve probably heard a lot about “fat calories” or “carbohydrate calories.” The idea that fat calories are different from carbohydrate calories came from studies done under extreme conditions, such as consuming pure carbohydrate, protein or fat. In a normal diet though, your body converts excess calories from all three kinds of food into fat at the same rate. Like a kiss or a rose, a calorie is a calorie. Fiddling with the form of calories doesn’t help you lose weight.
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Almost any kind of diet can lead to weight loss, at least over the short term, because even the oddest diet makes people pay attention to how much they are eating. This mindfulness is often enough to limit daily calorie consumption, the single most important key to controlling weight. Most such fad diets fail in the long run. A good diet, though, helps you lose weight and maintain a lower weight for a long time.
The ultimate diet would be one that controls hunger, is pleasing and satisfying, meets the body’s needs for energy and nutrients, and minimizes the risk of chronic disease.
My recommendations are: 1) keep track of your calories and 2) follow the healthy eating guidelines at left.
Diets low in sugars, white flour and other refined carbohydrates are best, and a diet that borrows heavily from the Mediterranean and other traditional diets can offer a healthy nutritional foundation. Plenty of vegetables and whole grains and relatively little meat means a relatively low energy density. The abundance of vegetables and whole grains, as well as the relatively high percentage of fat (30 percent to 45 percent of calories, mainly from olive and other vegetable oils), makes for mild effects on blood sugar. Just as important, this type of diet is open to creative interpretation. You can incorporate cuisines from around the world, as well as your own creations, into an eating pattern with enough variety and pleasure to last a lifetime. (For more information on the Mediterranean diet, see “My Big, Healthy Greek Diet,” February/March 2004.)
Get moving. Other than not smoking, exercise is the single best thing you can do to get healthy or stay healthy, and keep chronic diseases at bay. Regular physical activity improves your chance of living longer and living healthier, helps prevent numerous diseases, including arthritis, heart disease and certain cancers, relieves symptoms of depression and controls weight.
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