Dieting
This is an accepted version of this page Dieting is the practice of eating food in a regulated way to decrease, maintain, or increase body weight, or to prevent and treat diseases such as diabetes and obesity.
As weight loss depends on calorie intake, different kinds of calorie-reduced diets, such as those emphasising particular macronutrients (low-fat, low-carbohydrate, etc.
In his 1863 pamphlet, Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public, he outlined the details of a particular low-carbohydrate, low-calorie diet that led to his own dramatic weight loss.
[11] Dieters who are overweight (but not obese), who are normal weight, or who are underweight may have an increased mortality rate as a result of dieting.
[9] The word diet comes from the Greek δίαιτα (diaita), which represents a notion of a whole way healthy lifestyle including both mental and physical health, rather than a narrow weight-loss regimen.
In 1724, he wrote An Essay of Health and Long Life, in which he advises exercise and fresh air and avoiding luxury foods.
[15] By means of Dobson's testing procedure (for glucose in the urine) Rollo worked out a diet that had success for what is now called type 2 diabetes.
In 1863, he wrote a booklet called Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public, which contained the particular plan for the diet he had successfully followed.
A meta-analysis of 16 trials of 2–12 months' duration found that low-fat diets (without intentional restriction of caloric intake) resulted in average weight loss of 3.2 kg (7.1 lb) over habitual eating.
[1] A low-fat, plant-based diet has been found to improve control of weight, blood sugar levels, and cardiovascular health.
[27] Low-calorie diets usually produce an energy deficit of 500–1,000 calories per day, which can result in a 0.5 to 1 kilogram (1.1 to 2.2 pounds) weight loss per week.
[30] The National Institutes of Health reviewed 34 randomized controlled trials to determine the effectiveness of low-calorie diets.
[2] These diets are not recommended for general use and should be reserved for the management of obesity as they are associated with adverse side effects such as loss of lean muscle mass, increased risks of gout, and electrolyte imbalances.
[37] During prolonged fasting or very low calorie diets the reduction of blood glucose, the preferred energy source of the brain, causes the body to deplete its glycogen stores.
[40] Studies have suggested that for people in intensive care, an intermittent fasting regimen might "[preserve] energy supply to vital organs and tissues... [and] powerfully activates cell-protective and cellular repair pathways, including autophagy, mitochondrial biogenesis and antioxidant defenses, which may promote resilience to cellular stress.
[43] Exclusion of animal products can reduce the intake of certain nutrients, which might lead to nutritional deficiencies of protein, iron, zinc, calcium, and vitamins D and B12.
Plant-based diets are effective for short-term treatment of overweight and obesity, likely due to the high consumption of low energy density foods.
[22] The Mediterranean diet is characterized by high consumption of vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole-grain cereals, seafood, olive oil, and nuts.
[2] While dieting can effectively promote weight loss in the short term, the intervention is hard to maintain over time and suppresses skeletal muscle thermogenesis.
Suppressed thermogenesis accelerates weight regain once the diet stops, unless that phase is accompanied by a well-timed exercise intervention, as described by the Summermatter cycle.
[2] Some studies have found that, on average, short-term dieting results in a "meaningful" long-term weight-loss, although limited because of gradual 1 to 2 kg/year weight regain.
[2][7] A 2001 meta-analysis of 29 American studies found that participants of structured weight-loss programs maintained an average of 23% (3 kg) of their initial weight loss after five years, representing a sustained 3.2% reduction in body mass.
[10] Even with high-intensity, comprehensive lifestyle interventions (consisting of diet, physical exercise, and bimonthly or even more frequent contact with trained interventionists), gradual weight regain of 1–2 kg/year still occurs.
[58] A number of studies have found that intentional weight loss is associated with an increase in mortality in people without weight-related health problems.
"[9] Due to extreme or unbalanced diets, dietary supplements are sometimes taken in an attempt to replace missing vitamins or minerals.
[63] In an editorial for Psychological Medicine, George Hsu concludes that dieting is likely to lead to the development of an eating disorder in the presence of certain risk factors.
The Set-Point Theory, first introduced in 1953, postulated that each body has a preprogrammed fixed weight, with regulatory mechanisms to compensate.
This theory was quickly adopted and used to explain failures in developing effective and sustained weight loss procedures.
A 2009 article found that drinking 500 ml of water prior to meals for a 12-week period resulted in increased long-term weight reduction.
Study authors suggested that one explanation for the difference is that group participants spent more time with the clinician (or whoever delivered the programme) than those receiving one-on-one support.
