No quick fixes to healthy
weight loss
30.01.2012 Siphosethu Stuurman
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Looking your best and
losing weight always seems to be a priority for the new year
for many South Africans. But with so many weight loss plans
around, choosing the correct and healthy weight loss programme
is crucial.
Mother and daughter, Jabulile and
Dikeledi Mawaune, probably ate one or two many dishes of
deliciously fatty food this past festive season. As a
result, they both struggle to fit into their regular jeans
and this can only mean they?ve gained weight! The duo were not
about to take this issue lightly. They decided to
get onto a diet plan called the Jump-start juice
seven-day diet plan. For the entirety of the seven-day
programme the dieters consume only fresh juices.
?I lost in my first week? I lost in a
matter of three ? four days. I?ve now stopped because I?ve
reached my goal of fitting into my jeans and it has also helped
me decrease the amount of food that I take in?, says 22 year
old Dikeledi Mawaune who struggled to fit into her size 30
jeans.
This was the first time Dikeledi got
into a weight-loss programme. Her 47 year-old mother,
Jabulile Mawaune, however, has had previous
experiences with dieting.
?I did Bio-slim early on, but it
only worked temporarily. I had some
side-effects, which were mainly constipation. And I
think it reduced my glucose levels because I was shivering and
forever hungry on it. I had to abandon Bio-slim?, says
Jabulile.
However, even with her previous unpleasant experience with
dieting pills, she jumped at the opportunity to start on this
juice diet, also referred to as a detox diet plan.
?The diet has really worked
because I can fit into my clothes, although I didn?t
measure my weight before I started. But I could gauge with
the clothes that I?m fitting in that I was not fitting in
before?, says Jabulile.
Though the mother-daughter pair have nothing but
praise for their seven-day juice diet, Lila Bruk, a
dietician at the Wanderers Wellness Centre, says it?s unlikely
that such a diet will provide long-term results.
?I think that one needs to realise that there is no such a
thing such as a ?quick fix?. Whether it?s the case that someone
is trying pills, shakes or crash diets, at the end of the
day it?s not going to work?, she says.
Bruk says the Mawuanes will probably
regain the weight and may very well have negative side-effects
like constipation.
?There is no point to the juice diet
because what ends up happening is that you stick to your juice
every day, but after that if you go back to your old
habits. The weight which you would lose, you put back on??, she
says.
Bruk says there are dangers attached to ?quick fix? diet
plans.
?The dangers are that it puts your body under a lot of
strain. Look at the weight loss that the plan
promises. A healthy weight loss is half to one kilo a
week. So, if it says three kilos per
week, then, that?s going to be too much of a weight
loss. It?s potentially dangerous and, probably, an
unhealthy way of losing weight?, says Bruk.
She also warned people to research and
find out about the side-effects of a weight loss plan before
they get into it.
?If you are taking pills or shakes or
other potions that cause you to lose weight, then those
products themselves may have dangerous side-effects such as
increasing the risk of stroke, heart attack, and it can also
have other negative side-effects like insomnia and
palpitations?, says Bruk.
So, what healthy eating plan can people use then?
?Firstly, one needs to make sure that one is choosing the
lowest fat products. So, an easy thing to do is to
change from full cream dairy to low fat
or, preferably, fat-free, then, to do things
like removing skin from a chicken, cutting fat off meat
and, obviously, avoid all the junk
foods... Making sure that each meal is balanced... For
example, at lunch and dinner you should make sure that
half your plate is vegetables, a quarter of your plate is
protein and another quarter is starch?, she says.
She adds that regular exercise and
drinking between six to eight glasses of water everyday also
helps.
?Don?t just do something as a quick
fix. Make sure whatever you?re doing you can sustain for the
next week, month, year! It needs to be something that will last?,
concludes Bruk.
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No quick fixes to healthy weight loss
