The Golden Rules for successful long term weight loss – Series 1/10
Most of us, have at some point, been on a diet; or tried several diets to lose weight. And for many of us we probably did indeed shed off those extra pounds during that short temporary period of strict dieting and self-restraint. But let’s be honest; how many of us, after reaching our target weight, lose the attitude we had during dieting and quickly fall back into the old, unhealthy snacking habits and then find we have regained the weight we worked so hard to lose just a few weeks back?!
The problem with ‘crash diets’ or ‘desperate diets’ is that they revolve around strict food sacrifices that we can only hold up for so long. We may see rapid weight loss whilst on an intensive diet regime but soon after, most of us will experience rapid weight regain.
To cut a long explanation short – most physicians will tell you that diets do not work unless you gradually and permanently change your eating habits, attitude towards food and how you exercise and sleep! And they’ll also tell you that the best and safest way to lose weight is slow and steady.
While losing weight can be a difficult journey; keeping the weight off is the most challenging. Beating obesity and maintaining a healthy body mass index (BMI) is a lifelong commitment and requires permanent lifestyle changes. Dr Faruq Badiuddin has devised a set of rules for successful and sustained healthy weight loss. In this series, we will discuss in detail the 8 golden rules to achieve your weight loss goals and more importantly; beat obesity.
Follow a structured eating plan … and stick to it!
The first and most important golden rule is to develop and follow a structured eating plan. This involves setting a time to eat at regular intervals during the day and always at the same time everyday as much as possible. Quite simply; pre-planned meals will prevent unconscious overeating. When you have an idea ahead of time what you are going to eat and when; you’re more likely to have control over your eating behavior and stay away from snacking, particularly the ‘bad’ snacks and drinks that lay around at home or in the vending machines outside the office.
The first step of structured eating is to eat at pre-defined regular intervals and to ONLY eat during those pre-set meal times. This can be 3 meals a day. Our bodies are designed to follow biological rhythms (circadian rhythm) and the hormones that regulate food intake and assimilation are synced with these biological rhythms. If the food intake is also synced with the biological rhythm, the body is then in it’s optimum state to receive the food intake and assimilate it appropriately. Unstructured eating confuses the body systems and therefore the body cannot deal effectively with this uninvited onslaught of food and the rhythm goes out of sync. This is similar to how we train a pet to eat only at given times so the pet does not keep demanding food throughout the day.
The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has published numerous articles regarding the effect of meal-planning and successful long-term weight loss. Research has shown that patients that follow a structured eating plan with sufficient calories and nutrients (even without following a physical regime) experience a dramatic decrease in cravings and hunger which kickstarts weight-loss. (https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqx005, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqy130, https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.112.045245).
Blogger Kelly Clark describes in her most recent article how structured eating actually made her stop thinking about food during the day, feel fuller quicker and without much effort – lose a noticeable amount of weight. (https://www.the10principles.com/structured-eating-helped-me-lose-weight/).
So the take home message here is that falling into the habit of structured eating allows your body to adapt and ‘program itself’ to receive food at certain times and not crave food in between meals. Try it! Take the decision to have only 3 meals a day at fixed times (as much as possible) everyday; breakfast, lunch and dinner and do not eat in between meals. Your body will soon adapt to this eating behavior and you will find you begin to have less cravings. Following a structured eating plan over a longer period of time has great benefits on your body – not just on your waistline. Structured eating can help improve comorbid conditions of obesity, namely diabetes and hypertension.
Once you have mastered structured eating and embraced the benefits that accompany planned meals; we will discuss the next golden rule in our upcoming blog: ‘Have the right composition and proportion at each meal.’
