Dieting
Overeating and being overweight is a symptom of a problem, not the problem itself. Diets and weight loss products do not perform miracles. Being overweight has psychological components that need to be addressed before one can successfully lose weight and keep it off. A diet may take away the overeating for a while, but it leaves the underlying causes of overeating unaddressed. Hence, the yo-yo syndrome of losing and gaining the same 10 lbs over and over again, endlessly. As a result dieting increases compulsive eating and your weight. Most people find that they gained more weight than they had lost when they started a diet program. Dieting ends up becoming one of the causes of obesity and eating disorders.
Dieting is a part of many people’s everyday lives. However, diet can sometimes be very unhealthy if you make poor decisions simply to lose weight. Dieting can be healthy and effective or bad for your body, so it is crucial that you learn the difference between dieting in a healthy way and dieting in an unhealthy way. Yet, dieting to achieve weight loss has been a cornerstone of obesity treatment, because excess weight is associated with high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol levels, metabolic syndrome, and other cardiovascular risks and increases the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes and some cancers. But stop-dieting advocates point out that many other factors also contribute to these conditions: age, family history, gender, diet quality, stress, socioeconomic status, vitamins, and minerals–and some of these causes are more significant than weight.
The diet industry’s advertising and marketing strategy is based on the creation and perpetuation of fear, biases, and stereotypes. Fat people are portrayed as unhealthy, unattractive, asexual, weak-willed, lazy, and gluttonous. Weight loss or a thin figure is equated with virtue, health, and success. Failures to participate in dieting or lack of success in losing weight are blamed on a lack of willpower or determination and a lack or moral values. Americans spend more than $33 billion a year on diet books, foods, programs, gadgets, and DVDs in the hopes of losing weight. Yet, after decades of dieting, about two thirds of the American population remains overweight. Some 30 percent are obese, and more than half of them are dieting. Which raises the question: Does dieting work? Do people lose weight permanently on diets? Does dieting lead to better health?
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