Everyone is familiar with the frequent promotions of new fad diets, cleanses, and detox teas that supposedly claim to help one lose weight instantaneously. Even if some of these claims are true, is the rapid weight loss safe? What is actually being lost (i.e. fat, water, lean muscle mass)? Does the weight stay off long-term? Those are the questions these promotions typically neglect to address. Dietician Lauren Harris-Pincus promotes a healthier and safer way to lose weight. With supporting research from the Center for Disease Control, Harris-Pincus recommends a “slow and steady slim-down approach that vaporizes one to two pounds per week.”1,2 Additionally, unlike all of the quick-slim crash diets, she recognizes the other lifestyle factors that play a role in maintaining a healthy goal weight, such as behavioral changes in eating, sleeping and physical activity habits.2
Harris-Pincus and New York Post article author Molly Triffin very accurately reiterate what the Center for Disease Control and Prevention research found, that long-term changes in daily eating and exercise habits strongly affect the maintenance of any type of weight loss.1,2 Not only does a slow and steady weight loss necessitate reducing caloric intake by about 500-1000 calories per day, but also in order to maintain this loss, an individual must participate in about 60-90 minutes of physical activity 3-4 days per week.1 Triffin also discusses some unwanted side effects of crash diets and attempts to rapidly lose weight, such as increased levels of stress, slower metabolism, loss of muscle tone, and dehydration.2
Clinicians can utilize this easy to read informational article as well as the Center for Disease Control recommendations, to give healthy weight loss advice to clients, patients, athletes, and others. Particularly, explaining the unwanted side effects of crash diets versus the longer-lasting health benefits of a slow and steady weight loss approach support the latter route to attaining one’s goal size. I particularly like Triffin’s quote near the end of the article, as I feel it sums up the major components of a healthy lifestyle: “I encourage my clients to forget about the scale and focus on eating right, exercising, reducing stress, and getting adequate rest.”2 Slow and steady wins the race!
1Healthy Weight. (15 May 2015). Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved November 4, 2016 from http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/losing_weight/.
2Triffin, M. (13 September 2016). What you need to know about losing weight quickly. New York Post. Retrieved November 4, 2016 from http://nypost.com/2016/09/13/what-you-need-to-know-about-losing-weight-quickly/.