Lose Fat in a Flash: Here’s How

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Title —– Lose Fat in a Flash: Here’s How

Weightloss —————————————— Several
years ago, talk show star Oprah Winfrey walked onto her set
pulling a wagon full of fat to demonstrate how much she had lost
on a highly touted liquid diet. Her dramatic weightloss results
gave hope to dieters around the country that they, too, could
lose weight fast.

But Oprah’s triumph didn’t last. Within a year or so, the
television superstar had regained most of what she’d lost.

A quick and painless path to a size 6 is the dieter’s ultimate
dream. And at least one scientist has given hope to millions of
dieters looking for a quick fix. The plan doesn’t have a catchy
name — yet. Originator James Anderson, MD, just calls it the
VLCD, for very-low-calorie diet.

The formula? Consuming only 900 calories a day by drinking only
five weight-loss shakes. Or dieters also can choose to take in
their allowed calories by drinking three shakes and substituting
two low-calorie meals for the others. When 112 people tried the
diet as part of Anderson’s research, they lost an average of 65
pounds over five months.

What’s really impressive, however, is that most people kept off
15 of those pounds — 23% of the initial loss — for more than
five years, according to results published in the December 1999
issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.
That’s significant because most people who lose weight can only
maintain 5% to 15% of their losses, says George Blackburn, MD,
PhD, associate director of the division of nutrition at Harvard
Medical School.

“Our study shows that people do better if they bite the bullet
and get down to a weight they desire and then try to maintain
it,” says Anderson, the study’s lead author and a professor of
medicine and clinical nutrition at the University of Kentucky in
Lexington. “It’s a myth that if you lose weight slowly you do
better in the long run.”

Shaping a Skinny Lifestyle

Don’t go running for the Slim Fast yet. On top of carefully
controlling their calories, the researchers also coached the
dieters on how to change their weight-gaining habits and ways.
Physicians and dietitians in the study stressed the importance
of eating fruits and vegetables. Dieters learned how to count
calories, assess the nutritional value of various foods, and
understand the importance of exercise. Those parts of the
program are essential to any weight-loss regimen, not just
Anderson’s. “Weight loss isn’t just about restricting calories,”
Anderson says.

Other weight-loss experts agree. “The diet itself was an
important element of Anderson’s study, but if the subjects
hadn’t also made substantial behavioral changes, the outcome
would [have been] very different,” says psychologist Tom Wadden,
PhD, director of the weight loss and eating disorders program at
the University of Pennsylvania. Research has shown that such
fast-track diets are only as good as long as they last, says
John Foreyt, PhD, director of the Behavioral Medicine Research
Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “Rapid weight
loss typically leads to rapid weight gain,” he says.
“Very-low-calorie diets are diets we can’t live with and can’t
live on. The bulk of research shows that they’re short-term
fixes, and when you go off the diet, you return to old habits.”

Battling the Bulge

Still interested in giving quick weight loss a try? Anderson
offers these tips, which he thinks made the big difference for
his dieters.

Exercise.

Try to burn at least 2,000 calories through exercise each week.
Start with one 10-minute walk a day, every day, and work up to
at least 20 10-minute exercise sessions a week.

Walking just one mile burns 150 calories. Eat at least five
servings a day of fruits and vegetables. “You get a lot of food
for the calories,” says Anderson.

Three cups of broccoli, for instance, contains roughly 120
calories — about the same as a tablespoon of butter or oil.
Incorporate meal replacement products into your daily or weekly
menu. Meal replacements — whether they’re packaged foods such
as Lean Cuisine, or shakes such as Slim Fast — are very helpful
for maintaining long-term weight loss. “Using just two meal
replacements a week would be enough to keep off 10 pounds in a
year,” says Anderson. “That’s a lot of weight for a minimal
change in eating patterns.”

Source: WebMD

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