The latest government guidelines about weight loss advise only aiming to lose 3% body fat and then keep it off.
This surely has to be an easier goal to achieve. For example, someone weighing in at 80kgs or 12 stone 8lbs, this means losing 2.4kgs or just over 5lbs. Hopefully, for some this advice will be an achievable goal and they will lose those pounds for good.
In my experience, with a bit of concentration, everybody I’ve ever worked with has lost a few pounds very easily.
But then we run into three problems.
The most obvious is the second part of the government’s hopes – keeping the blubber off. Time and again, people lose the weight only to resume eating all that fabulous food that got them flabby in the first place. And then it all piles back on, plus the inevitable bit more. Which, of course, is the most undesirable state of yo-yo dieting.
The food that makes us fat will always make us fat. Getting slimmer will never change that fact. The food that makes us fat will always call to us. It will always be our friend in times of tiredness, stress or depression. This is why we are steadily getting fatter and fatter as a nation. And the real poke in the eye lies in that most of this food makes big profits for the food companies, which means it is wafted before us in adverts, prominently displayed in supermarkets: ‘Eat me, eat me. You know how good you are going to feel after you’ve popped me into your mouth…….’
The other problem is that people don’t actually want to be fatties. To tell someone they only need lose a few pounds is less daunting than telling them they need to lose a few stones. But only a few pounds of lard loss will still leave them fatter than they would like to be. I suspect that people will think these latest guidelines excellent for all the fatties; but they don’t really apply to them because they want to be slim and not a bit less fat.
The third stumbling block is trying to use better health as a motivator. People usually want to lose weight to look good naked. Health benefits come a very feeble second place – nice to have, but lets just get slim, then all my woes will be over. That’s why people will go on the most dreadful diets, like food replacement diets, the cabbage soup diet and so on. The weight falls off, along with good health and energy levels, leaving them weak, prone to illness and depression. And so they reach for lovely, lovely cake to make them feel a bit better…..
Some people will lose weight permanently when they have had a shock – either a major health scare or a photograph taken on holiday, say, which suddenly reveals them in all their magnitude. Some, but not everybody. For other, the siren call of wondrous food overcomes absolutely everything.
I really hope these new guidelines help people lose a bit of weight permanently. But to really help people, they need strong encouragement to cook everything themselves, not reach for replacement ‘slimming’ alternatives to sugary fatty food. Demonising low fat rice pudding instead of meat and saturated fats will go much further in reducing our waistlines than well meaning advice to lose a bit of weight because it will make us healthier.
