Forget fad diets and lose weight the healthy way

Shedding weight through healthy eating habits and exercises can be a challenge, making some people opt for risky dieting methods whose results are not only short-term but could also be grave. PHOTO| FILE| NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The weight loss diet, though said to be effective in some instances, has been criticised by experts for lacking proper nutrients.

  • The concoction that consists of water, freshly squeezed lemons, maple syrup and cayenne pepper to add a little sizzle is meant to detoxify the system.

  • One has to drink 6-12 glasses for 10  days with no solid food whatsoever. Mercy, however, tweaked it a bit and instead of eating a normal breakfast she would mix sea salt with warm water, gulp it down and be ready to start her day.

“Eating healthy” is a rule of thumb for many people, but sometimes the lure of overindulgence can be too much to resist.

And with diet considered a major contributor to weight gain — that is sometimes associated with health problems and low self-esteem — it is no surprise that some people go to extremes to lose weight.

At a time when society is pushing people to work round the clock, completely exhausted at the end of the day with no time to spare for anything else, the appeal of quick-fix diets as a last resort in attempts to look fit remains a time bomb.

But, according to experts, many of these “fad diets” may be unhealthy, unbalanced and unsustainable.

Take the case of Mercy Chege*. A keen follower of all things weight loss, Mercy took up the lemon detox Diet that was made famous by American singer Beyoncé Knowles.

“I felt I was a bit overweight and thought I needed to lose a few kilos,” she said.

The weight loss diet, though said to be effective in some instances, has been criticised by experts for lacking proper nutrients.

The concoction that consists of water, freshly squeezed lemons, maple syrup and cayenne pepper to add a little sizzle is meant to detoxify the system.

One has to drink 6-12 glasses for 10  days with no solid food whatsoever. Mercy, however, tweaked it a bit and instead of eating a normal breakfast she would mix sea salt with warm water, gulp it down and be ready to start her day.

During the day, all she would drink was the lemon detox drink and in the evening switch to green tea. She, however, did not last the course as the rigorous routine took its toll and forced her to start eating solid food.

Tried and tested

Not one to give up easily, Mercy turned to exercising with the help of aerobics and dance work-out DVDs. After the vigorous workouts she managed to shed off more than 10 kilos. Looking back now, Mercy says that sustaining her body for those nine days with only lemons, water, sugar and pepper was “madness.”

Sonye Dennis, a nutritionist and specialist in weight management puts emphasis on setting realistic goals and making small changes that can be easily maintained. In his years of experience, he has observed that most of his clients’ problems usually stem from low self-esteem.

Irene Macharia, who has been Sonye’s client for nearly two years, began seeing him for weight loss advice while at her heaviest – 83kg. Although she currently maintains a steady weight of between 74-75kg, she frequently goes back to her fruit and vegetables diet every three weeks and on occasion changes it to beetroots, carrots and parsley.

But not everyone is lucky enough to escape unscathed after going through an extreme diet. Jane* experienced first-hand what a crash diet could do to her body.

At 111kgs when she began the diet, she adopted a fruits-only diet for two months without any real solid food. She rapidly lost 16kg within that period and was happy when she weighed 95kg. But she could not maintain that diet, gaining more weight especially since she was not exercising. 

“She got frustrated and abruptly quit the diet,” Sonye explains. “Losing all that weight in such a short amount of time and gaining it back came with some problems, she started experiencing back pains and joint problems in the knees.” Although Sonye has put her on a healthy diet plan and recommended walking as an exercise plan for now, Jane suffers from low self-esteem and is obsessed with weighing herself every day.   

Extreme diets

While living on juice for days may sound extreme to some, there are dieting methods, especially in the West, that are more shocking. For example, breatharianism is practiced by breatharianists who take fasting to the extreme — they believe that they can survive on light, air and energy alone.

They also believe that the solutions to world hunger and food related diseases are to stop eating. Before fully converting to breatharianism, people are urged to gradually change their diets by first becoming a vegetarian, a vegan, move to raw foods, fruits and liquids and finally air.

Other methods include using tapeworms to digest half of the food one eats. For instance, last August, an American mother is reported to have given her daughter a pill filled with tapeworm eggs to help her lose weight quickly. Unfortunately, the mother did not tell her daughter what she had given her, and weeks later while in agonising pain, it was discovered the young woman had a lot of tapeworms.

The tapeworm diet pill is, however, banned in America and some European countries.

Wanja Anne Kinyanjui, a food nutritionist and dietitian, stresses that the best way to lose weight is through a balanced diet, eating foods that are low in salt, sugar and fat and exercises.

Nutritionists encourage healthy weight loss which is not more than 1 to1.5kg a week.

With inspiration and the right information, dieting can easily be enjoyable. However, nutritionists recommend eating the right amount of food; this is what they refer to as portion control.

Practicing good eating habits such as having regular wholesome meals and not skipping meals can help keep one’s metabolism high which is good for maintaining safe weight.

*Names changed to protect identity