Why Diets Fail And The Real Solution
by Joan Breibart May 31, 2013
This is a special article. I asked Joan to write about why diets fail because her approach is completely different. She and her partner, Meredith Luce RD, MS, LN, have 25 years of experience and success with a method that contradicts all the diet advice. She explains – shockingly – how the unquestioned formula to exercise vigorously to “burn calories” and “eat healthy” actually fuels our obesity epidemic! She bluntly takes on this central and sacred tenet of the exercise and diet industry.
I was particularly intrigued because Pilates similarly stands up to the “no pain no gain” exercise directive that’s been accepted for decades. I’m thrilled that she’s taken the time to respond. Any serious Pilates enthusiast is grateful for Joan’s leadership – her influence in the Pilates world is unmatched. She is the founder of the PhysicalMind Institute and TheMethodPilates, one of the most respected Pilates Certification programs. She’s even invented several pieces of Pilates apparatus: the MiniReformer in 1993, the Pilates Chair in 2004, the Tye4 in 2011 (see my review of this product), and the Head Floater in 2012. As if that weren’t enough Joan is credited with single-handedly putting Pilates on the map! If Joseph Pilates was the exercise genius, Joan was the marketing guru. The Pilates Elder, Mary Bowen, describes it best, “she alone made Pilates the popular world-wide phenomenon that it is today…without her, Pilates would be known only to the dance world.”
A quintessential New Yorker, she’s blunt, busy, and doesn’t suffer fools. Reminds me of my mother-in-law born and raised on Central Park West, who when once accosted by a purse-snatcher turned and beat him with her bag until he ran away. Not recommended but, well, that’s the way she is. Joan will object to all these accolades and small talk, and if they remain here it is only because I managed to convince her that it will make more people reading her message! Anyway, one day while exploring her website I came across her (no)diet project called 80Bites. Intrigued by this startlingly new take on weight management I tried it. It’s working for me and my partner alike! So after reading Joan’s words be sure to check out www.80Bites.com.
The Problem
All our efforts at dieting and exercise to lose weight aren’t working! According to the nonprofit research group Trust for America’s Health, adult obesity has doubled since 1980 and tripled for children. They conclude that we need new strategies for weight management. Obesity used to be confined to developed nations, but no more – the World Health organization has now declared obesity a world-wide epidemic.
What About Better Nutrition
I know what you’re thinking: more people simply need to eat better and exercise more. Let’s see if that’s true. First let’s look at whether eating better is the solution. Consider what we ate in the 50’s when obesity was rare. We ate greasy burgers, fries, and soda. There was no such thing as a food label marked all-natural or organic. We drank frozen juice concentrates. All our vegetables and fruits came from cans or the freezer. And we used lots of margarine, Crisco, and other hydrogenated oils that we now consider poison! Yet our body weight was trim and our rates of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes were miniscule compared with today. Thinner and healthier bodies back then had nothing to do with what we ate.
What About More Exercise
You’ll be similarly surprised about exercise! Health clubs didn’t start until the 1970’s, and back then most women didn’t go because sweating was simply unfeminine. In the ‘50’s and ‘60’s the idea of jogging, hiking, or biking for exercise was rare. Yet moms back then delivered an average of 3 babies per household and easily managed to return to their pre-baby wardrobes! Thinner and healthier had nothing to do with exercise either. In fact, a recent article by PolicyMic points out that rigorous exercise works for weight management only if you are thin, and actually works against you if you’re overweight.
So with all the exercise and healthier eating we now do, why are we fatter than our grandparents? Research from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) answers this question, and it’s so simple it will shock you! It’s not what we eat but how much. The CDC reports that women today consume 30% more calories than women did in 1958!
Over-Consumption
Over-consumption got us into this mess. It all started in the 80’s when fitness and diet experts including physicians began to preach that we all need to reduce fats and carbohydrates from our diets, “burn” calories with more exercise, and drink more water.
One result was that eager Americans embraced “go for the burn/no pain no gain” exercise methods. These workouts burned calories but damaged our bodies. Additionally, recent research found that exercise is not an effective solution for losing weight. In this study people who cut calories 25% by only dieting and those who cut with half exercise and half diet, lost the same amount of weight. And both groups experienced the same decrease in muscle mass and basal metabolism! This doesn’t mean stop exercising – it’s essential for healthy muscle, bone, and heart – it’s just not the best tool for weight loss.
As for eating, the diet industry convinced us that grazing or snacking was healthier than eating regular meals. In other words, we were encouraged to eat anytime as long as it’s healthy food. What we didn’t realize was that larger quantities of food stretch the stomach which in turn causes us to eat more to feel sated. When we all ate less food, less often, we were also less hungry.Then came the glorification of water which led us to believe that we could drink our way to weight loss.
A Better Solution
So what are we now left with? A lot of time and effort and money spent on dieting and exercise with little to show for it. Diets in particular just aren’t working – we lose weight, stop the diet, gain it back, then start another diet or give up. It’s called yoyo dieting and it’s all we have which is no solution at all. A new diet method comes on the scene and it’s the same story of weight loss followed by weight gain with no long term solution, rising obesity numbers, and 7 out of ten Americans now overweight or obese, mostly obese. Morbid obesity—more than 100 pounds heavier than we should be—is the fastest growing category.
Let’s stop dieting and try something entirely new and based on the science of digestion. Let’s start by finding out how much we are now eating. To do this, we have to count the number of bites we consume in a day. Then we have to gradually reduce this number until we achieve normal consumption which is about 80bites. This means our stomachs will return to their normal and healthy size so that our hormones are in balance. Once we have normalized our stomachs, we won’t always feel hungry, and we can achieve successful, permanent, and life-changing weight management.