Word count: 1018 – Keyword: Weight Loss Program, 7X including 1 link

Weight Loss Programs are Getting Easier

Weight loss programs are cropping up everywhere. Even on this page, we offer a link to the "Top Ten Programs." Top ten? Why not top 100? It would be just as easy to offer 100 popular diet programs.

Though countless media messages and within every form of social endeavor -– be it work, school or play -- we are bombarded with the "You ought to lose weight!!" imperative. Alas, this relentless reproof cannot be sidestepped in our “Thin Is In!” culture. Indeed, ever since Twiggy was anointed by London's Daily Express as "the face of 1966," America has been on a 40 year diet.

But, are we losing weight? We have jiggled our rumps in strappy machines, heated our torsos in sweaty boxes, hooped hundreds of hulas about our hips, and supposedly, “Mastered” our thighs with Suzanne Sommers. We’ve thrown our money at such unlikely gurus as Fonda and Simmons and it’s getting just about as old as those sweaty “Oldies.”

In fact, the numbers go on to tell us we’re eating less fat than ever -- less than our parents ate. Actually, since the 1970s, Americans have reduced their daily fat calories from an average of 37 to 34 percent. Yet, in spite of our best efforts, Americans are fatter than ever. The dreaded numbers indicate that 65.4% of Americans are clinically overweight with 30.5% of us in the obese category. That is to say, more of us are now fat than not.

Now the bad news… NOOOW… the bad news you say?!

Yep. Fewer then 5% of obese people lose weight and keep it off more than 3-5 years. So why aren’t we doing something about it? Well, you see, that’s the problem. We do a great deal about it and it just keeps getting worse. We put ourselves on very rigid weight loss programs and our bodies, which should be gratefully cooperating with our healthy plan for their future, instead dig their proverbial heels into the dirt and hold their ground. Our bodies themselves are the #1 enemy to our cause.

There are several real life reasons for this calamity.

1.    Diets make your fat cells fatter
It’s called the “starvation effect.” Our bodies are created for survival. The natural response to being hungry is the adjustment of our fat cells to the apparent “famine” in the land. Fat cells respond to a growling, empty stomach by holding on tighter to any existing fat stores while, at the same time aggressively apprehending greater stores in preparation for the next “famine” (the next time you decide to diet). This is why frequent dieters get fatter and fatter.

2.    Diets create nutritional imbalance
By nature, diets restrict some categories of food, yet we draw our nutrition from the full gamut of available foods. If we neglect to provide necessary nutrients, our body will compensate with desperate cravings in an attempt to feed itself.

3.    We are human after all
Rules, rules, rules. Let’s be frank. When we were children, most of us told ourselves, "When I grow up, nobody is going to tell me what to do – I don’t have to eat vegetables if I don’t want to.” So what happens? You grow up and you still have to eat VEGETABLES. Then there’s measuring and weighing every little thing you do get to eat. Soon the process of dieting has sucked all the life out of eating – and you like to eat, but now, for all the pleasure you get out of it, you may as well have a carefully measured drip attached to your arm.

4.    Diets taste awful
You’re eating a cardboard bar, drinking a chalky shake and fantasizing about a big piece of double fudge cake in the refrigerator. Meanwhile, the Eve within you is whispering, “You won’t surely die” if you should happen to sneak downstairs in the middle of the night for that forbidden cake -- with a big glass of milk.

5.    Dieting can be expensive
Specialty foods; created to comply with the parameters of various weight loss programs can cost much more than supermarket bargains.

6.    Discouragement sets in
After seeing several ads with people claiming to lose six dress sizes in two months -- while you watch your scale sit fixed on one spot for weeks -- who will blame you when you finally toss the scale out the bathroom window.

7.    Food Feels Good
They don’t call it "comfort food" for nothin’! In today’s world of two career homes, over-extended kids and stressed relationships, did we really need science to tell us that a pint of Hagen-Daas would fit the bill? However, in the world of science, everything must be documented. So yes, it is well documented that many people turn to the "pleasures of unregulated eating" to release stress. Who knew?

So are we doomed to getting fat? No, not if we…

1.  Relax and exercise some patience. Don’t over react. Don’t go on some crazy diet. Don’t try to be thin by summer.

2.  Just make a change. Decide you are going to be a little more discerning about what you eat and how much you eat at a sitting.

3.  Don’t let yourself feel hungry, eat healthy foods several times a day.

4.  Slow down and learn to enjoy foods you may have been taking for granted.

5.  Forget about dieting. Think about “eating better” – dieting has an end, but eating better never does.

6.  Don’t obsess about the scale. You have chosen to lose weight slowly and healthily. Keep in mind that healthy eating is more the goal than losing weight.

7.  Seek a fun activity that will give you a moderate amount of exercise – again, don’t over do it. Pain is just pain!
 

The good news is:

Most of today’s diet gurus have taken into account the pit-falls that cause so many people to come short of their goals. They have prepared weight loss programs with well-considered fail-safes. As a result, weight loss programs are easier than ever. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most popular.

 

Top Ten Weight Loss Programs