Anxiety around weight-loss and crash dieting can lead to a yo-yoing health. This month, we look at how simply just making concrete decisions can help you to begin with.
Do you really want to be ‘the healthiest version of you’? Or do you actually just want to look good on the beach?
Let’s face it, we all say that we want to live a more healthy life, but when it comes down to taking advice and action, many of us seem to choose a path entirely detrimental to our long-term health – often favouring a fast track to vanity over a true lifestyle change. Maybe we need a six-pack for that trip to Ibiza, or perhaps we just have to fit into that dress for the wedding of the season.
Indeed, even if many of us do want to eventually live longer, move more and feel better, we often seem to lack the motivation to change unless it makes us look better. A recent study by the BBC reported that some 13 million British people are on a permanent diet. And many of those looking for a shortcut have turned to the quick fixes offered by fasting and crash diets which could lead to a dramatic drop in health, or at least energy levels, alongside the drop in weight.
So, whilst fasting or crashing will almost always serve to reduce the waistline temporarily, which of the latest diet trends or food types is actually best for long term weight loss? Well actually, the answer might be none.
The answer may in fact be none. Neuroscientist and nutritional expert Stephan Guyenet, in a recent debate with Gary Taubes (a low-carb researcher), stated on the Joe Rogan Podcast that after a two-week period of overfeeding one group with fat and another with carbohydrates, both groups “gained the exact same amount of body fat”.
This study was questioned for its short turnaround time (two weeks isn’t long enough in the eyes of Taubes and other experts), yet Guyenet would have expected at least a small sign that carbs are the culprit. But none whatsoever? If wider studies off the back of this trial give similar results, it could change everything we currently think about low-carb diets.
Whilst it is true that fans of the ketogenic diet (high fat, low carb) have claimed massive weight loss results, backed up by a Harvard study, the scientists involved admitted giving the subjects a low-calorie version of the keto diet which could just as easily account for the weight loss. Similarly, at first glance, advice on the Healthline website might suggest ‘vegan’ is the way to go if you’re looking to shed those pounds: “It’s thought that going vegan may lead to reducing the number of high-calorie foods you consume.”
But notice the wording: the only suggestion for potential weight loss is that you may choose to take on less high-calorie foods. It doesn’t claim that the food itself will actually help. The most likely explanation for weight loss across all diets could be down to the ditching of heavily-processed foods. Any foods with excess carbohydrates (usually from sugar or wheat), though perhaps not any more likely to add weight to your belly if eaten in the same volumes as ‘clean’ meat and vegetables, can often contain many hidden calories. It can then be difficult to stop eating and can cause a hunger crash an hour after doing so.
But if you’ve opted for a meat-based, plant-based or any other kind of diet, you’ve probably chosen to take your general health more seriously. So, the chances are you’ve ditched these ‘treats’ in favour of foods with a longer, but less immediate, satiation period. And perhaps you’ve also started to exercise more, giving your body a massive boost in the balancing of the calorie books. The data suggests that the anecdotal evidence of people losing weight thanks to a sudden change in the types of food they eat can more likely be attributed to the things they’ve stopped eating than started. Because, if the most recent studies into weight loss are to be believed, watching calories-in versus calories-out was all you ever needed to do.
words Jon Sutton