The media love new diets and plans to lose weight. Dispensers of spam love them and it’s obvious that the public is obsessed with losing weight. Of course everybody knows that all you need to do to become your ideal weight is to eat sensibly and exercise in the right way. Still this doesn’t stop authors publishers, newspaper barons and spam-makers, from cashing in big time by ‘introducing’ the public to the latest fad in slimming.
The sick joke is that all these new diets work and all of them don’t work. They work for a while because you deprive yourself of some fattening foods that are forbidden on your new slimming plan. Eventually the diet becomes too boring or too socially restrictive and you go back to your old eating patterns and old body shape and size. As a medical doctor I’ve seen this over and over again over the last 25 years. It’s amazing how easily the general public are duped.
Still, even I was surprised by a diet tried out by one Morgan Spurlock, a New York film maker. Spurlock had noticed a newspaper article in which it was reported that 2 girls were suing McDonalds ‘for making them obese’. (This reminds me of the Jackie Mason joke in which he suggests that people who hurt themselves by jumping out of windows, should sue the window company) Anyway in the name of personal research for a documentary movie, Spurlock decided to put himself on a diet which restricted him to food prepared by the well-known fast food chain. In an article in The Week, it is reported that his health took a dive in the first week. Besides putting on 2 stone and significantly raising his blood cholesterol, he lost his sex drive and became depressed. He also suffered from headaches and vomiting. Besides that he was very well – you might say ;-).
Now this dietary adventurer got what he deserved. Not even McDonald’s biggest shareholder would recommend a McDonalds-only diet. Fruit is probably one of the healthiest foods around yet if you eat fruit exclusively, you risk damaging your health severely. Therefore in defence of McDonalds I must say that I sympathise. Anything in moderation is fine – even an occasional McDonalds. I’ve seen many a happy (and non-obese) family in McDonalds enjoying an outing they could never afford in a fancy restaurant.
Dr. Kaplan’s weight loss tips:
Here are some excellent tips for losing weight. They may not make me as famous as Dr. Atkins, but they do work.
- Only ever eat when you feel hungry.
- Finish eating while still feeling that you could eat a bit more.
- Do not ever feel embarrassed about leaving food on your plate. (Notice how most thin people do this all the time)
- If you eat a big meal on a special occasion, compensate by eating very little at the next meal, eg. a couple of pieces of fruit.
- Embark on an exercise programme that involves ‘cardio-work’ as well as muscle-building (such as the Bodydoctor Programme featured on this website). It is now pretty clear that the best way to lose weight with exercise is to build muscle as well as get fit. The bigger muscles need food and drive your metabolism, making you lose weight.
Okay, if you take my advice and lose weight, feel free to donate £100 to a charity of your choice.
Homeopathic Tip of the Week
If you feel that you have always been overweight (and I mean since infancy) and you find it incredibly difficult to lose weight you could try the following. First contact your doctor and make sure you don’t have any hormonal problem such as a low thyroid hormone level. When you have the ‘all clear’ from your doctor, consider consulting a homeopath. There are a number of homeopathic remedies aimed at helping people with fat ‘constitutions’. For example the remedy, Calcarea carbonica is indicated in people who are fair, fat, flabby with pale skin and a propensity to sweat on the back of their necks. Best to leave the choice of remedy to a qualified homeopathic doctor who will also help you with a diet and exercise programme.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment