The Diet Logs

The Partnership for Essential Nutrition is teaming up with U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona to promote the basic dietary principles that allow people to lose weight in a healthy way.

As more than 65 percent of all Americans are overwieght or obese, and there seems to be a new “can’t fail” diet plan on the market all the time, it makes sense that the government and health groups should join together to remind people that there are no gimmicks behind weight loss, just eat less, more healthy foods, and move more.

The Partnership for Essential Nutrition has been vocal about the dangers of low-carb diets, or any diets that excessively restrict access to any one nutrient.

“If you are one of the many Americans who are overweight, shedding excess pounds will significantly improve your health, as long as you lose weight in a healthy way,” Carmona said in a news release. “The path to healthy weight loss includes setting realistic goals and following a comprehensive weight loss program that is sustainable — meaning the method must go beyond losing the excess weight and address ways to keep it off.”

A new 30-second television spot will start appearing this month featuring the Surgeon General talking about the healthy way to diet.

The Institute of Medicine offers the following tips for healthy weight loss:

1) design a diet program so it produces a weight loss of up to 2 pounds a week, the amount considered to be safe
2) incorporate the current scientific recommendations for nutritional completeness into the menu plans
3) encourage “normal” eating patterns
4) incorporate regular physical activity into the method of weight loss
5) develop programs that promote positive lifestyle change.

And here are some tips from the partnership’s website:

* Stay away from diets that sound too good to be true — Any diet plan or
product that claims you can lose weight without lowering the calories
you take in and/or increasing your physical activity is selling fantasy
and false hope.

* Set realistic expectations at the start — According to the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC), successful weight loss is typically losing about
10 percent of your body weight in six months.

* Choose a comprehensive weight loss program that is sustainable — This
means the method must go beyond losing the excess weight and address
ways to keep it off.

* Remember, it’s the calories that count — That’s why nutrition experts
recommend choosing what are known as “lower-energy density foods” –
meaning foods that are higher in water content and not very concentrated
in calories.

* Watch your portion size — If you practice portion control, it is
possible to eat almost any type of food and still stay within a healthy
range of calories for the day.

* Be more physically active — For weight control, the new dietary
guidelines recommend 60 minutes of activity on most days during the
week, which can include walking, dancing, housework and golfing.

* Create a Supportive Atmosphere — Don’t overlook the benefits of losing
weight with other people. Research has shown that dieters who recruited
friends or family members to help them had better results losing weight
and keeping it off than dieters who had no buddy system to fall back on.

Sarah White wrote this on October 19th, 2005 and filed it under Diet Logs, Dieting, Healthy Eating, Weight Loss |