Registered Nutritionists on the fight to combat obesity

 

When we discover that we are heavier than we would like, we have a natural inclination to skip lunch or reduce the amount of food; in the hope that the body will burn off some of the fat. But this is not necessarily true. Eating less can be more difficult to lose the weight, because of the changes in lifestyle.

Keep in mind that the human body took shape millions of years ago, and at that time, there was no such things like diets, let alone fad diets. The only low-calorie event in people's lives was starvation. Those that coped with the temporary lack of food were the ones that survived. Our bodies therefore have developed this built-in mechanism to help us survive in the face of low food intake.

Losing weight is not something which we can do overnight. A carefully planned weight loss program requires one to one support from a Dietitian, a Registered/ An Associate Nutritionist, or any other health professional.  Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation available and lots of desperate people are easily influenced into implementing this.

Every day we can open a magazine or newspaper and see advertisements promoting products, pills or patches that will take the excess weight off quickly. Everyone seems to be looking for that magic weight loss pill. Millions of people are trying to lose weight, spending billions of pounds every year on diet programs and products without long-term success.

Often people do lose some weight but if we went back and checked with the same people five years later, we would find that nearly all of them have regained whatever weight they lost due to the fact that their lifestyle didn’t change.

The myth is that people become heavy by eating too many calories, but overall, this is not the cause of obesity. People take in fewer calories each day than they did at the beginning of the last century. If calories alone were the reason, we would all become overweight.

Collectively, we are heavier than ever. Partly it is because we are more sedentary now than ever before. But equally as important is the fact that the fat content of the western diet has changed dramatically. And because it is quicker and easier than ever before to purchase junk food full of saturated fat, people simply eat too much of it without considering the health-related problems of eating so poorly. In a lot of cases, it is not until people are confronted with the real possibility of something happening to them that they take action and commence a dieting plan.

On the other hand, when most people do decide to do something about their weight or determine that they want to change their lifestyle, a lot of the time it is a spur of the moment decision or a New Year’s resolution. Deciding to lose weight without thought or planning is like an interest to purchase  house without a plan. There is a great saying along the lines of - people don’t plan to fail, but rather they fail to plan. If people took the same approach to weight loss as they did at planning their holidays, then their chances of success would be as good as having a great holiday.

The average person simply does not plan to lose weight, they just want it to happen and unfortunately it just does not happen that way. As a minimum before commencing any dieting plan, people should have short, medium, and long-term weight loss goals. They should also write down who inspires them to help them keep motivated through the tougher times. Finally they should receive guidance and support from a Registered Dietitian or a Registered/Associate Nutritionist. You can find of their services from these websites below:

Find a Registered Nutritionist

As a Nutritionist I am keen to find out the contents of the foods being consumed on a daily basis before commencing an intervention, so a food diary is an absolute must. I would first speak to the client and discuss their lifestyles, needs, requirements etc.  If meals are being planned in advance then it’s more likely that sensible eating habits will become a part of a healthy lifestyle. Along with planning meals, I also advise clients to incorporate exercise and refer them to a personal trainer or a Sports Nutritionist based on their location. This would help to reduce the body fat, as there need to be a focus on increasing the amount of exercise that is done and not just based on the food intake.  Dieting without exercising can often increase body fat with time, increase the metabolism by exercising regularly would help to reduce this.

Being more active in general for example climbing the stairs instead of taking the Lift, moving around instead of sitting still, sitting up instead of lying down as well as showing some excitement and enthusiasm instead of boredom are things that more effectively burn calories and reduce body fat. According to data published by Gov.uk, the NHS spent 6.5 billion pounds on overweight and obesity related ill health, between the year 2020 to 2021. Reducing obesity and improving diets is essential to increasing the life expectancy of the population.

I feel that we are more aware and accepting of the fact that we need to be exercising, which is great. However the eating and drinking habits do not change with this. The same foods and probably more of it is consumed because we are exercising more. This then leads to no weight being lost, which then leads on to quitting the programme altogether. We need to look at the long-term picture and work on changing our overall lifestyle habits to accommodate small, and easy weight loss. I am aware that we want this now but sometimes it doesn’t happen now, we quit and then any weight that has been lost goes straight back on.

Another challenge people make when starting a new diet is to restrict the amount of food consumed.  When we do this we actually do the opposite by influencing the body into survival mode and reducing the metabolism.

Unfortunately, when we give up on the diet and go back to eating how we were previously, we put the weight back on as quickly as we lost it and possibly gain more weight.

Successful long-term weight loss comes from a combination of all the things that have been mentioned in this article. The chances of success for those people who implement any of the ideas contained here would have a greater chance of losing and maintaining the weight than for those who have not made a plan to start on their weight loss journey.