C Is For Cookie…
…Diet, that is.
The New York Times has a commendably skeptical take on the principal cookie-based diets on the market: Dr. Siegal’s Cookie Diet, the Hollywood Cookie Diet, Smart for Life and the Soypal Cookie diet. Eating cookies on a diet may seem like a luxury, but the reality is pretty stark… these diets typically provide only 800 – 1,000 calories per day!
Critics of cookie diets are not convinced. Weight-loss plans that center around a diet of below 1,000 calories do not, they say, lead to long-lasting weight loss and can result in potassium deficiency, gallstones, heart palpitations, weakened kidney function and dizziness. The cookie diet particularly concerns eating disorder activists, who have long criticized fad diets, such as the grapefruit diet, Master Cleanse and Optifast shakes. “Generally speaking, fad diets misinform the public and fuel a fire of continued curiosity with this dieting mentality, which we know gets us nowhere,” said Dr. Ovidio Bermudez, medical director of Laureate Eating Disorders Program in Tulsa, Okla. “They tend to promise a huge return for very little investment,” he said, adding, “We need to be very aware of that fact that whenever we skew our eating in any direction; the chances are that we’re going to hinder our health and not enhance it.”
…“For weight loss to stick, you have to be able to settle into an eating pattern that you can adhere to over time,” said Suzanne Havala Hobbs, a clinical associate professor at the Gillings School of Global Public Health, at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “That eating pattern needs to provide you with all the nutrients you need while holding calories in balance with the number you expend.
“Diets with a gimmick,” she added, “aren’t harmful for a short period of time. But they’re not likely to cause a meaningful change in behavior that will enable you to keep your weight at an optimal level.”
While the article probably won’t tell you anything that you didn’t already know (or suspect), it reinforces what those of us in the bodybuilding community have understood for years… there are no shortcuts to getting “lean ‘n mean”. Gimmick diets can certainly take some weight off in the short-term, but they aren’t a path to either long-term weight maintenance or achieving an optimal body composition. They aren’t worth the effort or the costs, which – in the case of the various cookie diets – can be considerable.
(h/t Pandagon)
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Makster on 24 Oct 2009 at 9:48 am #
I think the problem with the average person today trying to lose weight is dedication.
They see these “fad diets” come along and try them because they are easy. Eat a cookie, lose weight. Take this wonder pill, lose weight.
They do not dedicate themselves enough to change their diet and start to exercise.
Elissa on 24 Oct 2009 at 4:24 pm #
Part of the problem is the incessant portrayal of fat loss/muscle gain as something that can be done easily. All you have to do is go on this 6-week “flat belly” exercise program, or that 10-week “beach body” diet. Follow the instructions and everything will fall into place.
NOT.
As you and I both know, there is one hell of a lot to learn about nutrition, diet, supplementation and exercise (strength and cardio).
It’s a lot like going to college and getting a degree. It takes work and study over a prolonged period to earn a diploma. People understand up front that it’s a process. It can’t be rushed, if the credential is to mean anything at all. Establishing a foundation of knowledge and building on it takes TIME. Schools that offer “quickie” degrees and give credit for “life experience” are rightly known (and scorned) as “diploma mills.” Likewise, the folks who obtain such degrees are typically viewed with suspicion, since only a hack would try to take a shortcut to professional respectability.
Same deal with making substantial changes to your body and lifestyle: it can’t be done in a half-assed way. As the saying goes, “anything worth doing, is worth doing well.” Understanding what all the variables are and how to manipulate them to your advantage is a SKILL that has to be learned… both through study and one hell of a lot of trial and error.
To expect maximal results from minimal efforts is the same sort of wishful thinking that drives people to blow money on lottery tickets. Sure, every once in a while, somebody wins big, but for every winner, there are millions of losers.
Makster on 25 Oct 2009 at 10:31 am #
I was taught early in life that most good things don’t come easy. There is usually a lot of work involved, but the end result is worth it. I don’t understand why some people can’t seem to get that.
You’re analogy is right on. People expect to work hard for an education, if they want to attain a degree. That degree will usually help them succeed in life.
Yet to put that same effort into nutrition, exercise and diet to help them live that life longer, isn’t worth the effort.
I personally would like to live as long as I can. If that means making time and putting in the effort for diet and excercise, I’m in.
Elissa on 25 Oct 2009 at 5:10 pm #
True enough, and you don’t have to be obsessive about either one to achieve results.
In the end, people didn’t evolve to sit around and eat cookies (diet or otherwise). Our ancestors moved: they ran, walked long distances, climbed, hunted, swam, gathered and carried heavy weights. They had to, as their survival depended on it. Likewise, their food was high-quality: nuts/seeds, herbs, fruit/berries, insects/grubs, shellfish/fish and game.
“Diet” and “exercise” are inherent to who we are as a species. The farther a program strays from this basic reality, the greater the likelihood that it will (ultimately) fail.