The right way to diet

Teenagers, with slim, shapely girls as their role models, form a major proportion of those hell-bent our losing fat where it shows. Most of them are wary of fat, though very few sweat it out. Says Puja Sharma, a collegiate, “I took to dieting mainly due to escape being the butt of jokes among my friends. Their sarcastic comments kept ringing in my ears everytime I decided I had enough of boiled food and want a change. Since I started dieting, I have now qualified for the pleasantly plump,” a title which is in a way better and pleasing too. Now she eats a little of everything and recommends moderate dieting.

This sensible approach has very few supporters. Most of us are in a hurry to achieve what we sit out eyes on. So is Shivani Sood, a 17-year-old, who went in for a crash diet before she joined college. Though she lost a lot of weight yet she reluctantly admits it was a mistake. She is down to 55 kg but feels drained out and lethargic all day long. She adds, “My system refuses food now. I am consulting a doctor to address my problems”.

Dieting in an uncontrolled and unrestrained manner leads to nowhere and you an up “gaining” more than you bargained for once you are off dieting. Says Dr. Usha Bansal of the General Hospital, Panchkula, “Dieting is one of the treatments for obesity. So while dieting, changing the eating habits rather than weight reduction should be the goal. This ensures that whatever is achieved is maintained”.

To prove her point is Manju Rekhi, a housewife who has been on and off dieting for the past 22 years. She exclaims in an exasperated voice, “I have tried slimming centres, naturotherapy, walking and even staying only on apples for a whole week. Nothing has helped. Every time I lose weight I’m tempted to eat what is forbidden and then I end up at square one”.

Her husbands shrugs off her attempts as non-serious. Her friend Aruna has lost 9 kgs in three months due to her regular one hour walking schedule in mornings and evenings. Her efforts have paid dividends and she plans to cash on them and still maintain herself. Her advice is that cutting an sweets and fats helps but it must be coupled with a balanced diet and exercise. This prevents any pent up demand from being relieved once dieting has done the job.

Dieticians at the PGI emphasise that dieting should be undertaken only under medical supervision because it can make a difference. Overdoing it causes irreparable damage which may manifest itself after some time. Anupama Waie, a dietitian at VLCC says, “Crash diets are a no, no ! Loss of a kg a week is normal but beyond this it is undesirable and even difficult to maintain. Controlled eating and regular exercise make dieting easy and less complicated”.

There are others who neither recommend nor undertake dieting. Harvinder Kaur is one such lady. She has seen cases of excessive dieting which have left a bitter taste in the mouth. She says, “A lady in her 50s enthusiastically took to dieting which has resulted in aches all over her body due to deficiencies that arose during the period. Another case is of a girl, 25 years old, who overdid the diet schedule she had made and took 10 years to recover and be able to stand on her feet. For me, dieting has become unthinkable. I keep a check a what I eat and that’s about all I do”.

Ravinder Arora with her hourglass figure and graceful gait has maintained herself by being satisfied with small quantities of everything. “Overstuffing is not for me,” she adds.

Both ladies prove what the doctors have time and again emphasised — Eat right, Stay fit. They warn against developing your own dieting schedule without expert opinion and also warn of cutting down on the essential requirements of the body. They also agree that dieting in the proper sense is beneficial for obese people. They stress on eating everything but in reasonable measure to avoid the side effects which result in a lost of other problems.

So, dieting is not a problem but in proper, uncontrolled dieting is more harmful than any other problem be cause ti weakens the bodies resistance to fight diseases. Exercising also goes a long way in weight reduction if that is what you are aiming for besides checking food intake. The answer does not lie in throwing the any out with the bath water but in dieting in the manner it is meant to be.