The pressures of society have always been there. Look like a supermodel. Be fit and healthy. Don’t forget to treat yourself but feel guilty doing so. The reality of losing weight is a distressing one, and one that needs refreshing through scientific approaches that forget the ‘shame and blame’ culture you’re expected to put yourself through.
All diets are different; most are fads and yo-yo diet. Some recommend you ban carbs and cut out fruit, bread, and pasta, while others say you can eat as much pasta as you please because they score low on a point-based system while half an avocado is half of your daily points. They all vary, but at the end of the day, they can all cause distress on a person’s body while also causing psychological harm.
Before trimming the fat on the myth of calorie counting and point-based yo-yo diets, people need to understand that when it comes to obesity and dieting, it’s not your fault.
What is Diabesity?
Diabesity is the dangerous combination of diabetes and obesity. It’s a serious epidemic, and according to the Centers for Disease Control, 90% of obese people will develop type 2 diabetes. Worried about the high numbers, the government officials created exercise and diet programs to hinder this global issue.
With dieting being a multi-billion dollar industry, it’s not so much finding a diet but finding the perfect one that not only works for you but is also healthy.
Why Yo-Yo Diets Don’t Help Diabesity
Being overweight and obese is cloaked in negative stigma, much like being underweight. You’re either “too fat” or “too skinny,” or you’re “too obsessed with your diet” or you’re “too lax with your diet.” These societal issues can confuse. Are you supposed to be a waif, or are you meant to be the “good kind of curvy”?
Diets try to replicate what’s considered “in” right now.
This is dangerous in the long-run. You shouldn’t be looking to cinch in your waist because that’s what you see on your social media feed. Rather, you should stop calorie counting and hopping from one diet to the next.
The Truth about Weight Watchers
Weight Watchers is a household name when it comes to diet tips, with many people turning to the point-based system for help in regulating their weight. What people don’t realize, though, is that such point-based diets don’t think long and hard about the correct nutrients your body needs to survive.
Weight Watchers split their points into categories. But these categories are limited, to say the least:
- Calories.
- Saturated fats.
- Sugar.
- Protein.
Sugar and saturated fats are high in point value, while protein is low. Although sugar and saturated fats should be eaten less of, Weight Watchers forget about healthy fats, the importance of carbohydrates, and that too much protein can fuel weight gain.
Sugar and saturated fats are high in point value, while protein is low. Although sugar and saturated fats should be eaten less of, Weight Watchers forget about healthy fats, the importance of carbohydrates, and that too much protein can fuel weight gain.
What’s more, Weight Watchers preaches a restrictive diet that disallows you to fall off the wagon. If you do, then the pounds you’ve lost through starvation are piled back on, meaning the 50 pounds you’ve managed to starve off have come back, plus ten pounds heavier.
The problem with Weight Watchers is its focus on the quantity of food, rather than the quality.
Why Does this Happen?
Losing weight, only to gain it back is frustrating. Many of us throw in the towel, realizing that such diets aren’t helping us out, but making us more miserable. While starving ourselves and calorie counting sounds good in theory, when you consider the science behind it (or the lack of), why you put the weight back on makes sense.
Starving yourself causes your metabolism to slow down. A slower metabolism will ultimately impact your body’s set point, increasing your chances of weight gain. Plus, when you return to eating certain foods you’ve cut out, or you’ve decided to treat yourself to a handful of fries, your body is more likely to cling onto these fats, fearful of further starvation.
There’s SANEity When it comes to Dieting
Luckily, the SANE Set Point Diet recognizes that calorie counting isn’t the future of dieting. Rather than be forced to follow a rigid calorie counting plan, SANE teaches you to look after your set point. Through their SANE Premium program at sanesolution.com, your true set point can be reached, and most importantly, maintained. Guilt, shame, and blame can be vanquished, along with the damaging effects of yo-yo dieting.
What’s Your Set Point?
Set point is the magic word when it comes to weight loss and keeping the weight off without starving yourself. In a nutshell, it’s the level of stored fat your body works to maintain by regulating your metabolism and appetite through hormones, genes, and brain. The amount of calories you consume or the amount of exercise you’ve logged doesn’t impact your setpoint.
SANE focuses on eating foods that are high in fiber, protein, and water, alongside whole-food fats and low-sugar fruits. You’re allowed to look at the cupcake without fearing you’ll put on weight, and what’s more, you’re allowed to treat yourself to one on occasion without putting on weight.
Eating is a joy. By catering to your set point, you’re able to never diet again. Yo-yo diets, coined by Oprah herself, should be a thing of the past.
The Difference between Weight Watchers and SANE
Weight Watchers doesn’t distinguish between high-quality (SANE) or low quality (inSANE) foods. With Weight Watchers, as long as you’re within your daily or weekly allowance and do not consume more ‘points’ than instructed, then you’re promised to lose weight. However, “empty calories” combined with starvation can cause your metabolism to slow down, while your starving body clings onto the fats you’re eating.
This causes your body to put on weight and can impact a person’s blood sugar levels. If your blood sugar levels increase and decrease repeatedly, then this can cause diabetes. If you already have diabetes, then this can cause changes in heart rate, stress hormones, insulin resistance and increased cholesterol.
SANE, on the other hand, doesn’t agree with weight cycling (losing weight, regaining the weight, losing the weight yet again). Instead, they want you to lose weight and keep it off with thanks to proven science and practical habits.
Ignoring your human needs for certain nutrients can cause both mental and physical harm, and the back-and-forth of losing and putting on weight can make a person’s self-esteem plummet as they’re left feeling defeated.
Learning how to manage your body’s natural set point can allow you to love yourself. You can eat as much natural lean protein, leafy greens, and natural whole-foods as you wish, and you can exercise less. What’s more, occasional treats won’t leave you feeling riddled with guilt or you putting on weight. You’re given more freedom, and from science-backed diets like SANE, the diabesity epidemic may become much more manageable.