Create a Calorie Deficit for Weight Loss

Today's Diet Tip:  Create a calorie deficit through calorie reduction combined with increased physical activity.

We've all seen the television advertisements with Jared Fogle endorsing Subway because eating their subs helped him lose a massive amount of weight, 245 lb of weight to be precise.  Exercise was not really a part of Jared's weight loss plan but he has kept the weight off.  Mark Haub took it to a whole new level by losing 27 lb on the twinkie diet, definitely not what one would refer to as health food.    I was reading through a forum post and resulting comments on My Fitness Pal regarding "John Cisna, a science teacher from Ankeny, Iowa, lost 37lbs and saw his cholesterol drop by a third in the three months that he ate nothing but McDonald's. He also saw his low-density lipoprotein, also known as 'bad cholesterol', drop from 173 to 113."  He kept his caloric intake to 2,000 calories per day and he added 45 minutes walking to his day.  Essentially he ate fast food for 90 days, lost weight and improved his health markers.  In all three cases, a calorie deficit was created by caloric reduction from what they had been eating and in John's case, that calorie deficit was enhanced by walking daily.  This underscores the notion that as long as you create a calorie deficit, you will lose weight regardless of what you eat. 

Despite the weight loss in these three cases and the improvement is certain health markers, this is not something I would do myself or recommend.  The focus is on the food not developing a healthy, sustainable lifestyle.  I should note that I am not a huge fan of any fast food and quite frankly the last time I had a Twinkie was likely as a teenager, eons ago.  A diet consisting mainly of fast food has a multitude of other negative health implications even if you can lose weight eating it.  However, if one chooses to lose weight going on a fast food diet, that is their choice.   It may be slightly healthier than relying on heavily processed diet foods from the grocery store.  At any rate, this diet choice is rather expensive!  The Twinkie diet has the potential to quickly become problematic by not providing the body with the essential micronutrients needed.

This is one reason I do not like fad diets, diets that eliminate or greatly restrict one food group or crash diets.  Yes, they may be effective for temporary weight loss but they are ineffective for establishing long term healthy weight goals.  They can adversely affect your health, set you on a yo-yo dieting pattern or worse create an eating disorder.  These types of diets take the fun out of food which is unacceptable to this foodie!  Food is meant to be enjoyed.  Simply creating a daily calorie deficit allows you to do just that!