Does Dieting make you fat - Essay Example

Does Dieting make you fat? Many people hold onto the belief the only way to lose weight is actually embracing strict diet criterion, which entails a person restraining oneself by eating small amounts of food with an aim to lose weight. Many people who have ever asked methods of losing weight normally receive the same answer, which is “eat less”. This norm has been going on for some time until clinical nutritionists and scientists began questioning this mantra. According to research, the amount of food one eats does not affect a person’s weight because the only contributing factors in this situation are normally the amount and quantity of calories that one consumes on daily basis and physiology. Based on my opinion, dieting is not a good method of losing weight as humans are bound to get hungry. Furthermore, body physiology varies and responds differently to reduction in food intake. Dieting is the act where one restrains himself from consuming a lot of food in a move of losing weight. Whereas this method has been present for a long time, resent researches have concluded that the act normally does more harm than good to the human body. This is because by restraining from eating certain food, one normally triggers body hormones that behave, as though they are in a starvation state and are in dire need of weight gain hence resulting to increased weight. Whereas researchers are against dieting, many people are in full support of it and still follow certain myths, which according to research always end up doing more harm than good. Dieting, which involves a form of dietary restriction, entails eating small amounts of food over a large amount of time. At the end of the day, the person on diet realizes that instead of losing weight, he or she is actually gaining because although he eats small amounts of food, he or she does this several times in a day. This, in actual sense increases the total amount of food consumed and thus contradicts the dieting principle. The essay will shed more light on why dieting can be harmful and have an opposite effect than intended. Despite people holding onto the unfortunately untrue belief that fats are the main sources of obesity, a study carried out by Swedish dietary professionals state carbohydrates are the main contributors of obesity cases globally. Therefore, many people normally avoid fats and instead consume carbohydrates in their quest to control obesity but unfortunately, this usually does such people more harm than good. Therefore, the quantity of food that one consumes is never an issue because what matters is the amount of calories in the food. This in turn leads to an equally elevated hormone level. Insulin is the most important hormone to consider for it is directly involved with weight loss of an individual. One role played by insulin is the controlling storage of body fats. “When one consumes large amounts of carbohydrates, these results to increased sugar level in the bloodstream”. This results to higher levels of insulin in the body and this is directly proportional to the amount of fats stored in the body, which eventually results to weight increase. Therefore, low consumption of carbohydrates results to less production of insulin thus little fat storage. As a result, people saying that large consumption of fat makes one fat due to its high level of calories entail imparting with adequate information on how fat storage in the body works. According to Yuhnke, weight loss can be acquired through dieting. For instance, in her research Yuhnke states that one can cut 200 calories by consuming food such as sandwich pepper, Egg-Tofu pepper and sardines pepper. There are weight loss programs where obese people are placed to minimize reducing their eating habit. According to Fletcher and Wyatt, dieting does not cause weight gain as most researchers claim; on the contrary, it is responsible for the burning of calories. Naish gives an example of a woman named Michelle who gives her own testimony of a failed diet after her efforts to lose weight did not go as planned and instead she gained a lot of weight. Based on research, dieting usually not only changes ones metabolism and brain but also hoards fats, then craves that lead to heightened appetite for food. Consequently, this normally results to becoming more gullible than he was when he was not on a diet. Many dieters undergo a paradoxical scenario whereby they gain more weight as a result of their dieting. This is the reason why Professor Joseph Proietto conducted a research on why going on diet normally leads to negative results contrary to the expectations of the dieter. After the research, Proietto’s conclusion was that, when one decides to go on a diet, they usually subject a lot of pressure to hormones because they are not used to this sudden change. This results to the hormones becoming over worked and this normally results to, which makes them behave like they are starving and are in dire need of weight gain and this is the main reason why going on diet results to weight gain instead of weight loss . Human’s calorie hoarding frames are normally have the capacity of preventing weight loss but do not have the required strength to prevent weight gain. He goes further to state that when one manages to lose at least percent of weight, the human body normally takes that as an emergency, it reduces metabolism by burning less fuel. Therefore, the body resets its metabolism and starts functioning on fewer calories. But when the person on diet suddenly changes his eating behavior and begins consuming more that he was, the body is unable to go back to its former state hence it converts the extra calories into fats. Several myths have been stated to be responsible for the increased weight gain of the dieters. Some of the common myths include not having breakfast in order to burn fats; hence one will not get fat. The truth is that all this is false because by missing breakfast, one usually has a high appetite during the day and hence he is likely to consume a lot of food. Another common myth is that the consumption of diet drinks with the assumption that it will not cause obesity. Conversely, diet drinks are some of the contributors of body weight because these drinks contain sweeteners, which according to research are 13000 times sweeter than sugar hence they normally make one crave for food and these results to more consumption. The only methods researchers have approved are the capability of reducing weight by observing health nutrition by consuming food enriched with proteins and vegetables. One should also consume plenty of fats such as omega 3 that are present in coconut oil and fish. Apart from observing health nutrition, dieters should also avoid foods that are rich of carbohydrates because they are the main contributors of weight gain. Human brain also plays a big role on why dieting fails. This is because weight loss normally triggers an emotional resistance to food whereby the dieter develops high appetite for food all the time, hence impossible for him or her stay without food for some time because they become even hungrier. According to research, dieting is never long-term process whereby the impact is only visible in the first six months but after that duration, the former body shape resurfaces again. This is enough proof that decisions of going on diet normally fail in the end because five years down the line after the decision of dieting, two thirds of the dieters normally regain their original weight. Some cases, the situation worsens whereby they surpass their former body size and become even heavier hence high chances of contacting obese related diseases such as hypertension. Unlike older people, effects of dieting are worse among teenagers and youths, this is because they normally become heavier than those who never went on diet. As is seen, dieting therefore predisposes individuals to more risks than benefits. It is also not a proven way to lose weight and thus futile. References Burne, Jerome. "Could that low-fat diet make you Even Fatter?” Daily Mail 22 Oct. 2013: 30. Regional Business News. Fletcher, Anne M, and Holly R. Wyatt. Weight Loss Confidential: How Teens Lose Weight and Keep It Off and What They Wish Parents Knew. Boston [Mass: Houghton Mifflin Co, 2006. Naish, John. "Why Dieting Makes You Fat." Daily Mail May 2012: 30. Regional Business News. "The Six Diet Mistakes That Are Making Us Fat." Daily Mail 09 Mar. 2013: 32. Regional Business News. Yuhnke, Liana. How to Lose Weight with Fat Burning Sp Diet Recipes. New York: Dog Ear Publishing. Read More