Do Magical Diets Exist?

Hi, I am Dr. Craig Primack from Scottsdale Weight Loss Center. Today, I’m going to spend a few minutes talking about a concept that I call magical diets. First, I’d like to say that magical diets do not exist. Remember, magical diets do not exist.

What is a Magical Diet?

So what is a magical diet? A magical diet is a belief that something, and usually a very small change like not eating until eight o’clock and ending by eight o’clock or just cutting out one or two nutrients, maybe carbohydrates, all of a sudden makes everything in the world of weight loss work. Or by coming in and taking a small medicine that you don’t have to change your diet at all.

Well, again, magic diets do not exist. Dieting also doesn’t have to be hard. You do have to be persistent, and you do have to make changes over what you’re currently doing today. We believe today, in order to lose weight and keep it off, you need to do four things. I’ve talked about these before.

The Four Legs of the Chair

The first is dietary change. You do have to change your diet. I do believe meal replacements are an easy way in the society we live in today to change your diet by getting all the nutrients you need. Next week, I believe, I’m going to actually speak about meal replacements and what they mean and what that is. But as a general rule, if you do change your diet, you should be having probably a little more protein than the average American and a little less carbohydrate than the average American, and we can get into what that means in future weeks.

You do have to do some kind of movement, typically. That helps you actually feel good. It is not to burn a lot of calories. It’s not to make your heart rate at 80% for X amount of days. Exercise, especially outside, has been shown to help us with stress reduction, with relaxation, and for sure, with weight loss. The third is some kind of behavior change where you’re learning tips and techniques and ways to eat in social events. Thanksgiving is, if you’re seeing this on the day it’s released, tomorrow, and how do you do that in a safe and effective way? How do you go out to eat socially with friends and family? Can I have a drink occasionally?

Answer all those questions, and then all the other reasons we eat, stress, when we’re happy, when we’re sad, when we’re bored, when we’re lonely, when we’re tired, when we’ve had a good day, when we’ve had a bad day, and how do we deal with eating in all of those situations.

And last, but certainly not least, and maybe the most potent single thing of all of them besides strict dietary change is the use of anti-obesity medications or weight loss medications that do something on somewhere in the body.

The Appetite Center

Usually on the hypothalamus, the appetite center, to decrease appetite, to help reset our appestat, or the part of our brain that helps regulate our weight, whether we’re hungry or full and the hormones that are all involved with it. So the simple definition, again, of a magical diet is a diet where you make one or two small changes. Everything else in your life stays potentially the same, which can often be out of control, unregulated, and you believe your weight can come off and then stay off, of course. Magical diets, as I said, don’t exist.

Use the four techniques, or as we call it, the four legs of the chair. Each leg being a piece, and if you have four legs of your chair on the ground and stress comes in and shakes your chair, it stands pretty steady. If you’re only balancing on one leg, you decided you’re going to exercise your weight away, very quickly, maybe you get injured, or you go on a vacation where you’re unable to do your exercise, and your diet does fall apart.

The stronger your foundation of your weight loss plan, the better your weight loss plan will be.

So give up, unfortunately, the idea that there are magical diets, although there are many tools and tricks that aren’t magic, but founded in science that we use here every day.

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Thanks a lot, and have a great day.