Why continue to diet?

The majority of dieters are not fat, they see themselves as being fat. The majority of dieters do not lose weight, they spend their lives thinking about losing weight. Sometimes they may eat less, but will then compensate by eating more. Sometimes they may lose weight, but will quickly regain it.

All very upsetting.

As a result....

It could be assumed that the average dieter who never lost weight would stop dieting.

It could be assumed that all the negative side effects of dieting would deter women from launching into their next attempt to lose weight.

It could be assumed that the time and energy required constantly to think about what/when/where you eat would make dieting an unacceptable occupation.

It could be assumed that most dieters would soon become disillusioned and that the dieting industry would go bankrupt.

These are all plausible assumptions but are not the reality. Year in year out women pursue their desire to be thinner. As one diet fails the next is started. Leaving a slimming club means rejoining a few months later. Feeling a failure_; being fed-up, becoming preoccupied with food and weight are no deterrent to the perpetual dieter. The drive to be thin outweighs any of the undesirable effects of dieting.

But is it just the power of thinness?

Women start to diet because they want to be thinner and because thinness is associated with a multitude of other desirable qualities. Being thin means success, it means control and it means attractiveness. However thin they may be to start with, being thinner is still the goal.

Yet, whether or not they achieve this goal, dieters continue to diet. Dieting takes on a life of its own.

Dieting as a Way of Life

For a large number of women dieting becomes a habit. It becomes a pastime and a way of life. Women discuss what food they have eaten today, what they ate yesterday and what they will eat tomorrow. Dieting provides a focus. 'Have you seen the latest copy of . . . . "did you read that slimmer of the year's story in.. . '. Women diet together, friends can compare notes and exchange ideas. They can go to slimming clubs together, and they can even vomit together.

Slimming clubs often take on the role of social clubs or sports clubs. They provide a place for people to get together, to chat and to make friends. All the members of a slimming club have a common interest and a common goal. The clubs also provide a place to get away from the pressures of family life.

In the western world, families are shrinking and the extended family is no longer so extended. It is easy to become isolated, especially for women at home with children. A slimming club provides the place to get away from the strains of home-life, make new friends and find support. Most members of clubs are women and maybe this reflects not only women's desire for weight loss but also their need for support and friendship from other women.

Women diet because they want to lose weight but they continue to diet because it becomes a way of life, a social activity and a habit.

Does sugar make you fat?

Although obesity is not classified as a disease, it is associated with a variety of diseases and since it is a problem - or potential problem - for so many people, the role of sugar in its development and treatment needs to be looked at carefully.

Firstly, overweight, and later obesity, develop as a result of an imbalance between your energy intake (from food) and energy output (the energy used for daily living, including basic body functions and any exercise you do). When you take in more energy than you are using, the body stores the additional energy as body fat. The source of this extra energy is immaterial; it makes no difference where the additional kilojoules come from. In other words, it is not eating one particular food but rather eating too much overall that leads to weight gain. It is possible to put on weight by eating (or drinking) too much of anything.

In practice this would of course be extremely difficult in the case of bulky foods with a high moisture content - such as certain vegetables - simply because it would be difficult to eat enough of these foods to provide kilojoules in excess of your energy needs. By contrast, in the case of concentrated, energy-dense foods such as rich desserts, fried foods or chocolate, it is all too easy to eat enough to lead to an excessive energy intake. Sugar, being a carbohydrate, is not the worst offender in this respect - fat is a far more concentrated source of energy - and it has been said that sugar is often 'guilty by association' because many so-called 'fattening foods' are high in both fat and sugar. For example, in the case of chocolate, sugar contributes approximately 33°k of kilojoules, compared to the fat contribution of over 50%.

Studies have shown that fat people don't eat more sugar than lean people, neither do they have more of a sweet tooth. They do however tend to eat more fat. In the light of recent research this makes sense, since we now know that it is easier to become overweight by eating too much fat than by eating too much carbohydrate.

Fat vs sugar

There are several reasons why fat is a bigger culprit than sugar when it comes to the problem of overweight. To begin with, as mentioned above, fat is far more energy-dense than carbohydrate - a gram of fat provides 38 kilojoules, whereas a gram of carbohydrate provides only 17. Secondly, carbohydrate seems to have a so-called thermogenic' effect, that is, it pushes up the body's metabolic rate so that kilojoules are burnt up faster. Lastly, the process by which the body converts dietary fat into body fat is a very efficient one - only 3% of the kilojoules are lost along the way. By contrast, when the body converts dietary carbohydrate into body fat, 23% of the kilojoules are lost. In other words, when you eat carbohydrate, only 77% of the kilojoules from that food are available as energy for the body.

To prevent weight gain, therefore, the best diet to follow is one that is low in fat and high in carbohydrate. This does not mean a diet high in sugar - the recommended carbohydrates in this case are complex carbohydrates, or starches. You can, however, include a limited amount of simple carbohydrates or sugar in your diet without fear of becoming overweight, as long as the total energy value of the diet is in line with your energy needs. Remember, it is the balance between your energy intake and your energy output that counts, rather than the type of food you eat. People who burn up a lot of energy (through, say, regular exercise or even nervous tension) can therefore eat more of these foods without fear of gaining weight, than can those whose energy requirements are much lower.

Sugar and slimming

When it comes to weight reduction, however, sugar should be looked at more carefully. The basic principle of a slimming diet is to select foods that are high in nutritional value but low in energy, so that although your kilojoule intake is restricted, all your nutritional requirements are met. Sugar provides only energy, so it is the first thing that should be excluded from a slimming diet. Interestingly, though, there is a school of thought which suggests that from a psychological point of view, a small quantity of sugar may be included in a slimming diet to help prevent feelings of deprivation and resultant binges. This obviously depends on the individual - some people crave sweetness and provided they can limit their consumption of sweet foods to one 'treat' a day, it may not be necessary for them to eliminate sugar totally. Of course, if once you've opened a packet of sweets you can't stop until you've eaten the last one - or if you're one of the lucky ones who seldom craves `something sweet' - it would be simpler to cut out sugar completely!