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Weight Loss Diets
For anyone who has
had a never ending battle with the bulge, weight loss diets are a
godsend. Or a nightmare, depending on your perspective! Ask anyone who
has ever been on a weight loss diet and you will get a mixed bag of
reactions. While some will vouch for their specific weight loss diet,
others will pooh pooh all weight loss diets and call them fanciful or
useless. But the fact remains that if you intend to burn that fat, a
weight loss diet is your best bet.
Over the years, weight loss diets have become an industry in their own
right. If one were to track the genesis of weight loss diets, the
seventies would be a great place to start. For this is when the first
of the weight loss diets made an appearance. Decades of stable economy
coupled with an increased earning capacity and standard of living gave
most Americans the traditional symbol of prosperity – an
expanding midriff. And for those who were image conscious, the very
first weight loss diets were created. Since weight loss diets were
concocted mostly at home, and included instructions on what not to eat
rather than what to eat, the industry (if you can call it that) was not
very successful. You must remember that this was an age when food,
diets and nutrition had still to become key areas with qualified
professionals offering advice. Typically, it was the lady of the house
who was supposed to keep a check on the bulge around her
man’s midriff and she did this by doing away with or slowly
but steadily eliminating known weight gaining foods. Nutrition and
balanced weight loss diets were still unknown as yet.
It was in the early eighties however that weight loss diets became a
full-fledged institution. By now, the battle against the bulge had
become a real enough health issue for governments and healthcare
providers to sit up and take notice. The census and healthcare figures
of this period reveal that nearly one out of every four Americans was
clinically obese. And weigh loss diets and practitioners literally
began crawling out of the woodwork to set shop. This was the time when
numerous fads emerged. There were some weight loss diets that
encouraged vegetarianism. Others like the Atkins weight loss diet
promoted eating of meet, but disallowed starch and carbohydrates. Some
other weight loss diets promoted fresh fruits and vegetables
exclusively while still others eschewed everything that contributed to
excess calories. This was an era when calorie counters emerged and
weight loss diets became synonymous with body fat analysis and lean
muscle weight.
Being clinically obese, I too experimented with several weight loss
diets in the hope that they would whack me into shape. But the truth of
the matter is that no weight loss diet, no matter how extreme, will
ever work without a healthy dose of exercise. Sitting on the couch, not
eating may help you lose weight, but it will surely leave you weakened
and unhealthy. But an effective weight loss diet coupled with regular,
calorie-burning exercise will do wonders for your metabolism.
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A Healthy Dose of Good Advice
