Eating Crow: Fad diet or lifestyle change?

 

Follow Lee Crow of Bryant on his fitness path, and try his recipes and health tips. See the the archives to his featured column here.

---

By Lee Crow

Sorry it’s been a couple weeks since I’ve posted anything on Eating Crow.  I’ve been getting in a lot of cycling and getting ready for Yard Wars. More on Yard Wars shortly.

This edition of Eating Crow is an opinion, rather than a new recipe.  Those will be back after Yard Wars.

So, let’s get to the point.  Fad diet or lifestyle change?  For my experience, living more than 10 years in bondage to obesity, I believe fad diets are just that, a fad.  Here’s why. While you can have success on a fad low calorie diet, there are a couple problems.

First, you run the risk of having a caloric deficit, thus putting your body into starvation mode.  When you exercise you have to have calories to burn.  If you’re eating fewer than 1,500 calories a day and you’re burning 500-800 in exercise, more than likely you’re gonna end up with a caloric deficit.  The best way to tell if this is the case is, you can have a resting metabolic rate (RMR) test done.  This will tell you how many calories your body burns at a resting state.  So if you’re struggling to see the weight come off, chances are you’re at a deficit with your calories or close to it.

Second,  while fad diets may be good for someone who wants to see a few pounds come off quickly, when you stop you’re gonna gain that weight back and then some.  This is where I believe healthy, sustainable weight loss is healthier than a fad diet.  If you’re balancing your protein, healthy fats, and carbs – yes carb – right, and you are exercising, you’re gonna see successful weight loss that will be easy to maintain and sustainable.

Now there’s this myth about carbs being bad.  Carbs are needed for energy.  The key is, where are you getting your carbs?  Fruit, vegetables, and some whole grain wheat products are okay to eat.  Just don’t eat so few that you don’t have anything to draw energy from.

Finally,  there’s also the need for multivitamins and nutritional supplements to fill and nutritional gaps that might be missing, not to mention you gotta get good sleep at night.

With that, don’t forget to come check out my booth at Yard Wars on Saturday May 12, from 7 – 11 a.m. at Mills Park in Bryant.  Look for the Advocare sign with Drew Breeze, Quarterback, New Orleans saints.  Stop and try a sample of spark or rehydrate.  I’ll share the story of my weight loss journey.

Hope to see you then.

See the the archives to his featured column here.