Weight control requires discipline. There's temptation everywhere and most of us truly like to eat. But sane eating habits have little to do with denial, and everything to do with common sense. It can be easy if you follow a few simple rules.
To lose weight is relatively easy. It's a short-term process, and motivated individuals can live with the calorie restriction. But once the achieved ideal, or nearly ideal weight, has been achieved, then the challenge of maintaining that goal begins. Weight control requires knowledge and strategy. Individuals with metabolic issues are special cases and should not be included in these generalities.
One of the things I have come to believe in is intermittent fasting. There is good scientific evidence to back this up. But there is also a good deal of food industry pushback -- and you will soon understand why. We have all been brought up to believe that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but this just isn't so. Skipping breakfast has little negative about it other than keeping you hungry for a bit. Intermittent fasting is a strategy where individuals train to avoid eating between dinner and lunch the next day. This span, from 8 p.m. until the following noon hour, serves many purposes. It has been shown that the absence of food lowers the amount of circulating insulin telling the body that, in the absence of glucose from food energy, must be mobilized from other sources. These sources are glycogen stored in the liver, of which there is a limited supply, and stored fat, of which there is a seemingly endless supply. Hence, the insulin-lowering fast reduces body fat.
The opposite happens when eating. Elevated blood glucose is stored in the liver partially as glycogen, and primarily as fat.
A side benefit of the potential weight loss from intermittent seems to be its effect on helping control -- and sometimes eliminate -- Type 2 diabetes.
Lunch can be a normal diet without thought of calorie restriction, although another side effect of fasting is reduction in hunger. Dinner, too, can be normal in size and content. Depending on how strictly this diet is adhered to, it can result in weight loss, or simply weight maintenance.
Having established the value of intermittent fasting, there are several rules of weight control:
1. Drink a full glass of water at the start of every meal. Water is filling and has no calories.
2. Never have second portions, and if possible, get in the habit of not finishing everything on your plate. I know we have been taught otherwise, but look at all the overweight people around us and think again.
3. Skip dessert. Prepared desserts are high in sugar and calories and do you no good. Control the urge.
These rules are not hard and fast, and can be modified to fit individual desires. And of course, when serious weight loss is required, or metabolic conditions, like diabetes, are considered, you should discuss the situation with your physician.
Gerald Imber M.D. is an internationally known plastic surgeon and anti-aging authority. Learn more at YouthCorridorClinic.com. Email your skin-care questions to Dr. Imber at firstname.lastname@example.org.