No effort required: The no-diet diet

07:58 03 August 2009

Want to lose weight? Forget willpower, counting calories, curbing carbs and pumping iron - they almost always fail. The time has to come to try the no-diet diet!

According to some experts, dieting is bad for your health and is probably the worst thing you could do if you want to lose weight.

Here's why:

Mental

• Dieting creates an unrealistic relationship with food. This means you will eventually "crack" and regain the weight you lost.
• Restricting calories lowers your energy levels. This can reduce your "cognitive capacity" or brainpower.
• Numerous studies link chronic dieting with feelings of depression, low self-esteem and increased stress. Since nobody can stay on a diet permanently, you are setting yourself up to fail.
• Believing that being thin will give you more "worth" as a person reflects the attitude that your self-esteem is dependent on your weight. Dieting doesn't solve self-esteem problems; it could make them worse.
• Dieting disconnects you from your appetite. You don't eat when you are hungry. You then lose the ability to recognise when you are full and should stop eating.

Physical

• Yo-yo dieting can cause long-term damage to the body's major organs such as the kidneys, heart and liver, as well as to muscle tissue.
• Constant dieting reduces the levels of the body's natural killer cells. These are vital for fighting off diseases such as cancer.
• Dieting can also lead to skin problems, headaches, hair loss, light-headedness, menstrual irregularities, sleepiness, gallstones and constipation.
• Going on a diet can starve your body of essential nutrients. It is impossible to stay on a diet permanently without causing some damage to your body.
• A single episode of sudden weight loss, followed by rapid weight gain, can increase the likelihood of you developing heart disease.

Instead researchers are suggesting the no-diet diet.

They have discovered that the naturally slim and the overweight did not differ so much in what they ate, but whether or not they were driven by a collection of hidden habits. Over-eating was a side-issue, a symptom of something deeper.

They theorised that if you could break these hidden habits then people would naturally slim down to their ideal weight. When they tested their theory on obese volunteers, they discovered that you could lose weight simply by breaking these habits. A diet wasn't needed at all. It was instantly dubbed "The No-Diet diet".

How to lose weight

Day one:
Don't watch any TV all day. If you're not a TV viewer then cut out the radio instead.

Day two:
Write something for 15 minutes. It doesn't have to be 'War and Peace'. The idea is to start thinking and dreaming.

Day three:
Don't have your favourite drink. Whether it's tea, coffee or coke, have something different instead and see how your body gets a boost from breaking the habit.

Day four:
Go for a 15-minute walk. Use the time to think about your life and what you want from it. This will not only help clear your head, but also make you feel re-energised
Also pick two from the following:

Shift
Sit in a different seat. It could be in the lounge, at the dinner table or even in a meeting.

Hopscotch anyone?
Play a child's game - and help let your hair down.

Read
Be it a trashy magazine or an obscure book - reading will help to get your brain stimulated.

Take a trip
Go and see a museum or an exhibition or even go on a journey to a new destination

Chill out
Learn to meditate.

Source: The Independent