The Paleo Diet; The Vegan Diet; Low-Carb Diet; The Dukan Diet; The Ultra-Low-Fat Diet; The Mediterranean diet …and the list goes on. In fact, there are hundreds of diets which may be considered popular and then there are uncountable numbers of other ones besides. For the obese or overweight, just choosing one diet over the other is a dilemma and when it comes to complying with the chosen diet, that, of course, is a different story. In the end, for too many or any one, every diet fails leaving them frustrated at unsuccessfully fighting unwanted weight. And in the meantime, the incidence of obesity throughout the world is progressively on the upswing. WHO reported that obesity has nearly tripled since 1975. And associated with this the morbidity due to obesity has jacked up, too.
The increasingly pervasive problem of obesity, and our quest to address this problem has spawned a burgeoning weight loss industry. It was reported: “The total U.S. weight loss market grew at an estimated 4.1% in 2018, from $69.8 billion to $72.7 billion. And the forecasted growth is 2.6% annually through 2023. Just the component of Prescription obesity drugs in the USA alone is estimated at a whopping $655 million per year and most likely will grow, as pointed out in the Contrave et al study. But despite all the money amassed by the weight loss industry, will people on diets lose weight and successfully keep it off? Apparently not!
As Traci Mann, UCLA associate professor of psychology and lead author of the study appearing in the American Psychologist informed “You can initially lose 5 to 10 percent of your weight on any number of diets, but then the weight comes back,” Furthermore, it was found that the majority of people regained all the weight, plus more. Sustained weight loss was found only in a small minority of participants, while complete weight regain was found in the majority. So, it seems diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of people.It appears, the diet industry is the most successful failed business.
The question then is just how does one lose weight, keep it off and assist their overall health?
I think it all starts with the resolve of the persons who want to lose weight and get healthy. By eating any well-balanced diet (not a fad diet) people can achieve their goal. The task then is finding and formulating a balanced and realistic diet with less caloric intake. With the help of the internet and other resources this exercise can easily be achieved. But it is the second component in the equation which is the hardest–The resolve, commitment, will power and perseverance and execution to eat healthy and eat less. And this can’t be derived by relying on external sources—all of it has to be generated by the person wishing to lose weight and stay healthier. All of it resides within you and if you can’t help yourself nobody else can.
Those brought up to curb their desires and forego immediate gratification are the only ones who can lose weight and keep it off. But to have the right disposition of being strong willed, it all starts at a young age and in the brain of the child. Thus, it is so important to challenge a child to sacrifice pleasure for pain, and immediate gratification for long term benefit. If you have not been taught this and never learned this then it can never be a part of you.
Much superlatives can be used to describe those brought up to aspire for an ascetic lifestyle and not a hedonistic one. But in our times, curbing pleasure has become a taboo with everyone pursuing immediate rewards. The trend is, and has been for a long time, to bring up children by providing them every material item or pleasurable experience possible and as soon as possible. Early childhood is the most important learning time and parents have failed to instill asceticism as an important component in their child’s psychology. If this continues and, it probably will, especially in affluent countries, then the future of the race is doomed to the path of more obesity and ill health.
What Aristotle said long back still holds. He said, “Give me a child until he is seven and I will show you the man.” The incredible Greek was not suggesting that a fat child at age seven will always be fat, but he was talking about the development of the brain of the child which would determine his personality. If one of the traits in the personality lacks self-control and a need for sacrificing immediate pleasure for long term goals, then this will manifest in later age where the person would lose out on many things, except their weight.