A crash dieter's experience

THE HIGH-PROTEIN diet is the next crash diet that Sheila (not her real name) has her mind set on. She believes firmly that this time she will be able to lose the weight and keep it off. After all, one of her girlfriends told her that she moved from 241 to 160 pounds in just three months just by eating proteins only.

"People attest to it and it works, it's just a strict meat diet and I don't have to exercise. I just want to lose the weight and then after that I will try to stick to a maintenance diet," she said enthusiastically.

So, Sheila will invest another $10,000 or so, on the high-protein diet. She has already invested thousands of dollars, over the past 10 years or so on fad (crash) diets. She is an avid reader of books and articles on nutrition and dieting. So soon as a book is available on new dieting trend, Sheila would get it in her possession and regale her friends on the virtues of the new diet.

This all started when she was about 26 years old and weighed in at 82 kg (180 pounds) on a 1.6 metre-frame (five feet, three inches). She first tried prescription drugs but soon got tired of that diet and visited the offices of herbalist in Kingston. There she was put through the routine of cleansing her system, then placed, over one weekend, on a diet of fruit juices (a mixture of grapefruit, orange and lemon), then told to take some natural stuff in capsule form. She saw some changes but the office visits and the capsules and other food requirement were a drain on her pocket.

She next tried some brand name capsules which she took three times a day; then there was the stint with the thermal heating blanket ­ this hot blanket was wrapped around her and the theory was that she would sweat out the fat. Sheila says she never lost an ounce but at least she enjoyed the massage that went along with the package.

She tried several juices, teas, enemas, went on some of the packaged diets that claim to help you lose weight while you earn US dollars, but alas! after 10 years, Sheila is still not satisfied with her weight.

"In some of them, I actually saw some weight loss but after I started eating normally again, the weight would just come right back on," Sheila said.

Though she is toying with the high-protein diet, Sheila said however, that she realises that these diets are a drain on the pocket with no massive change in weight. Weight loss, she says, has to be a lifestyle change.

"With these crash diets you have to be taking them for the rest of your life and I don't see why I should be taking tablets for the rest of my life and depriving myself and watching everything I eat for the rest of my life. I realise too that a lot of it is indiscipline on my part, I have a terrible sweet tooth and I really don't like exercising," Sheila said.

But she is willing to try just one more fad diet. Maybe, this one will work.

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