Stay Health, Eat Often, Eat Well

Article about diets.

In an age when stories about celebrity miracle diets clog magazine shelves like fatty acids clog arteries, it is easy to feel pressured to live up to a perfect standard of ultimate health and beauty. Men and women alike are subject to a wide array of dieting trends, and although certain ideas sound like they make perfect sense as a weight-loss solution, dietitians and health experts agree that the best way to keep your body beautiful is simply to eat more food. When done properly, eating more is often the key to weighing less.

Just to be clear, the idea of eating more to weigh less is a bit of a double-edged sword, a nutritional paradox. Unfortunately, you cannot eat whatever you want and expect your body to compensate for the extra calories.

The key to eating more is in what and when you are eating. Creating a balanced diet and eating at regular intervals to keep your body full of vitamins and proteins is crucial.

"The question of ‘How effective or practical is dieting?' is a loaded question," said Tandalayo Kidd, extension specialist and assistant professor in human nutrition. "The bottom line is, you need enough calories to make sure your body is functional. Your heart will not stop beating just because you aren't eating, but your body will instead shift in order to accommodate the lack of nutrients."

A big problem with conventional dieting is people are often tricked by the sudden weight loss that happens initially and think they are doing something highly effective.

"When a person starts a crash diet, initially they will lose weight, but they will lose muscle mass as well," Kidd said. "Muscle is a high metabolic tissue. When you lose that tissue, your metabolism slows down and eventually you will gain back fat mass when you stop the crash diet.

"This is why people who stop dieting suddenly so often gain back the 10 pounds they just lost in a short amount of time, and usually, that gain is nearly all fat."

So exactly how much fat does muscle burn? According to the May 29, 2009, article "Eating To Lose Weight," from spineuniverse.com by Nancy Bennet, muscle tissue burns 70 percent of the fat in your body. Therefore, losing muscle means you lose the ability to lose fat. The article continues to say dieting is one of three main reasons, along with aging and inactivity, people show an increase in body fat. This isn't to say that an overweight person should not diet at all, but rather the type of diet is very important. Following the food pyramid is one of the easiest and most effective methods of making the body more sustainable. It's pretty easy stuff. Eat well, eat often, stay healthy.

Mark Edwards, unit director for the Derby Dining Center, has another theory about crash dieting and starvation.

"I think that people who try and starve themselves or crash diet have a willpower issue as well as health issues," he said. "The crash diet may be effective in the short term; you may find you have lost weight, but it will never work in the long run. Sooner or later, a person is bound to lose their willpower to constantly deprive their body.

"When this happens, they may be likely to go on what is the opposite of a crash diet — a binge diet. When you finally give up, you may actually consume way more calories than necessary because you are so hungry and you are craving more than what you have been getting."

Edwards said to choose a balanced approach and eat normally in addition to coupling diet with exercise. If you are trying to lose weight, K-State Recreational Services has a fitness and nutrition program, Kat Kravings, that incorporates exercise, meal plans and educational solutions to help students get on track to making healthy lifestyle decisions.

Starving yourself or following new trends like colon cleansing, body purifying or extreme purging might look glamorous and effective on the red carpet, but these are not practical solutions to staying in shape. The best way to maintain a healthy weight is to give yourself the nutrients and fuel you need to survive and never to try and skimp on healthy meal options.

Eat up, Wildcats, and you will definitely feel better and look better every day.