About Health & Medicine

The methods by which individuals select low-fat diets have been placed into four categories. A comprehensive approach to reducing dietary fat will consider ingredients, cooking methods, different foods and reduced-fat foods.

Another method often promoted for fat loss is the fill, trim, pick, nick and skip technique, i.e.:

Fill: Fill your diet with low-fat foods (fill your plate with vegetables, fill out your meatloaf with bread crumbs, fill up on bread and fruit).

Trim: Trim the high-fat bits (trim fat from meat, remove chicken skin, scrape the butter off the cafeteria muffin and the cream off the sponge).

Pick: Pick the low-fat foods (low-fat milk, yogurt instead of sour cream, fruit instead of cake, low-fat salad dressings).

Nick : Just nick those high-fat foods. Be a gourmet (who takes a little, treasuring the taste) not a gourmand (who takes a lot and treasures the volume).

Skip: Skip the high-fat foods more often. Have takeaways once in a while, not every week. Eat chocolate and desserts only on special occasions.

Any combination of fat-related dietary changes can lead to a target level of fat intake. Research has shown that substitution of low-fat foods such as reduced-fat dairy products is more easily adopted and maintained than the avoidance of high-fat items like meats and savoury snacks. It appears that people are willing to avoid some ‘fatty foods and limit consumption of others. Distinguishing between food items a client is willing to exclude, and those they are willing to limit intake of will be important when assessing individual eating behaviour.

Some research has been carried out to examine the individual perceptions of fat content in foods. In one study, men and women were asked to estimate the fat content of various foods. The results showed that for some foods the fat content was dramatically under-estimated, whilst for other foods it was over-estimated. Foods commonly mis-classified as being higher in fat included potato, spaghetti, baked beans and beer. Those foods incorrectly perceived to be lower in fat included chicken with the skin, sardines, cheese and peanuts. Almost 70 per cent of subjects thought that margarine was lower in fat than butter.

Even doctors and nutritionists studied in this survey had widely varying perceptions of fat in foods. These findings underpin the inability of consumers to recognise the fat content of their own diets and the need to educate clients about the fat content of foods.

From all of the above, it appears obvious that fat is the key nutrient for reducing body fat because (a) it is higher in energy density than other nutrients, (b) it is stored more efficiently as fat in the body and (c) it is less likely to result in ‘fullness’ after a meal and therefore to encourage a greater food intake. However, caution needs to be taken with some people who are restrained eaters and who see food labels in black and white terms. This was demonstrated in one study where non-dieting women were given yoghurt to eat 30 minutes before a meal, and were told it was either high-fat or low-fat. When they were told it was low-fat they tended to eat more at the following meal, hence perhaps negating the effect of the reduced-fat product. Hence, although prime attention needs to be given to fat in the diet, attention should not be distracted from total energy input and compensations which may occur.

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Stripped to its essentials, eating is the process by which we bring life-supporting chemicals into our bodies, an act that occurs at reasonably predictable intervals over the course of a day. Once the food is ingested, acids and enzymes in the stomach break it down, after which it passes into the intestine.

The nutrients, such as glucose, fatty acids, and proteins, pass into the bloodstream and float along until they reach their various destinations: the liver, the muscles, and so on. The body uses some of the nutrients immediately. Others pass into reservoirs, such as the fat cells, where they bide their time, waiting for the metabolic call to duty. That call comes from hormones-insulin, for example-and other chemicals. These chemicals escort the nutrients into the cells and tissues, where, broken down to their component parts, they help fuel the engines of life.

Eating involves not just internal processes but external ones as well. When we eat, we literally absorb part of the outside environment and incorporate it into ourselves. Eventually we return part of the meal to the environment and the process repeats itself. No wonder then that food, serving as a direct link to the “outside world,” can have such power over us! It’s not surprising that some people begin to use food and eating in abnormal ways, as weapons in the battle to gain control over their environment.

Eating behavior is partly biological, governed by the physical needs of the individual. It’s also partly social, determined by our interactions with other people. The way we think about food also affects the way we eat. For example, knowing that eating a candy bar at five o’clock could spoil her appetite for a big meal at six might affect a person’s choice whether to snack or not. Emotional factors also come into play; the sheer pleasure of tasting or smelling food can determine the content, timing, or size of our meals. Even though our bodies may not be sending hunger signals, the very presence of a scrumptious chocolate cake may make us want to eat.

Eating behavior, then, may occur in response to forces that have nothing to do with our bodies’ current nutritional needs. In treating the eating-disordered individual, there are two relevant questions to ask: “What biological abnormalities may be present?” and “Why have the non-biological factors that affect eating behavior come to dominate the biological factors?”

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At the tender age of 21, Dan Collins was so overweight and out of shape that his doctor feared he was killing himself.

“I was 5 foot 10′/2 and weighed 239 pounds,” he says. “I was diagnosed with high blood pressure, and my doctor was concerned enough to put me on medication.”

That was in 1984. Rather than sit back and let medications take control of his life, the young newspaper reporter from Towson, Maryland, embarked on a complete body makeover. He cut the salt in his diet way down, put the brakes on his runaway eating habits, and began walking and stationary cycling regularly.

Two years later, Dan had his blood pressure under control and was down to a lean 182 pounds. He felt and looked great but was afraid that he was entering an exercise slump. “I didn’t mind the walking and other exercises, but I really wanted a different kind of sport that I could really get into,” he says. “I knew that was important if I was going to keep the weight off for good.”

For Dan, that sport was fencing. While not as chic as aerobics a la Jane Fonda was in 1986, fencing really piqued his interest because it is both physically and mentally demanding. Working up a sweat was fun and exciting each time he picked up his foil and donned his mask and protective vest. “People don’t realize that a good fencer needs both aerobic and anaerobic conditioning as well as a sense of strategy and emotional control,” says Dan, who’s the co-founder of the Chesapeake Fencing Club of Baltimore.

While many others have piled up old, trendy sports gear in basements and attics over the years, Dan still fences every week, just like he’s been doing for the last 14 years. He also works out at home using a stationary bike and free weights to enhance his fencing performance. After all these years, it’s safe to say that this lean, mean fencing machine has found the perfect activity to help him keep the weight off.

WINNING ACTION

Go for the unusual and exotic. Learning how to move your body—and enjoy it—is personal. If you are having a hard time sticking with a workout regimen, try something uncommon or unconventional, like African dance, tai chi, or scuba-diving. Part of the journey of weight loss is discovering and uncovering the real you. Let your workouts be an expression of your inner self. If not now, when? Enjoy today!

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