HEALTH Exposing diet myths

Diet experts found many fallacies contribute to failed weight loss plans.
By BETH COONEY
STAMFORD ADVOCATE
Here are some things overweight people often tell diet experts about weight loss:
1. My genes make me fat.
2. I would be thin if I had time to work out.
3. If I could only give up (fill in the blank: carbs, fat, sugar, beer), I would be thin.
The dieting world is full of myths: that carbohydrates are bad; that only people with speedy metabolisms get to be thin; that once you have a kid, go through menopause (again fill in the blank), you have a choice: pizza or your favorite jeans.
The world is full of diet books that tell us to eat like a South Beacher or a svelte French lady, but they leave out the part about plastic surgery (as is common in South Beach) and smoking like a chimney (as is common in France).
Anti-myth
So it's a surprise to see two new books, one by Weight Watchers, another by syndicated columnist Charles Stuart Platkin, that seek to bust myths that pervade the belief systems of chronic dieters and hopeful losers everywhere. Each suggests that what we believe about diets might be as vital as what we do or don't eat.
In Weight Watchers' "Weight Loss that Lasts" (John Wiley & amp; Sons, $22.95), cardiologist James M. Rippe teams up with Weight Watchers International's chief scientific officer, Karen Miller-Kovach, to focus on what researchers have learned about successful, long-term losers.
"One of the things that has become apparent to us is that even though weight loss is based on science, there are myths out there that are so powerful they play a role, a very big role, in why people get derailed," Miller-Kovach, a nutritionist, said.
"If, for example, someone believes at a gut level that they are destined to be fat because they have a slow metabolism, then that's hard to get past," she said.
The truth, Miller-Kovach said, is that even a so-called big boned lady from a family of big-boned folks can lose weight and keep it off if she cuts calories, incorporates exercise and makes some lifestyle changes.
"Weight more than anything is driven by how many calories we consume and how many calories we use. It's a simple formula, but it eludes a lot of people," she said.
Lifestyle change
Too many dieters, Platkin added, believe that weight loss is some mysterious puzzle that depends on being told what to eat, how and when.
"You cannot believe how many people come to me and want me to tell them what to eat, precisely, in detail," Platkin said.
He won't do it. In his book, "The Automatic Diet," (Hudson Street Press, $24.95), Platkin focuses on science to urge people to work toward reasonable weight loss goals by making adaptations that suit their lifestyle. His mantra goes like this: "If you like to eat in fast food restaurants, you need to figure a way to make that work for you. If you like ice cream, you have to find something you can eat that tastes like ice cream that is going to satisfy you."
For some folks, a little frozen yogurt might do the trick, for others a weekly scoop of the real stuff might be the ticket. For the fast food junkie, switching from a mega burger to a smaller one or skipping fries and holding the mayonnaise might work.
The author, who lost 50 pounds several years ago and has kept it off, says successful dieters make changes they can live with. In his case, he gave up red meat and made a host of other changes, large and small, but says his methods wouldn't work for every dieter with the will to lose.
"I tried every diet out there, Atkins, South Beach, you name it, and failed," Platkin said. He lost weight and gained it back time and again before realizing, "The only one that worked was the one that fit into my lifestyle."
Platkin, 42, eats carefully, enjoys an occasional treat, avoids red meat and other sources of saturated fat because of a family history of heart disease and exercises religiously (but not zealously).
No evil group
Platkin's mantra is that any diet that restricts entire food groups is questionable at best, even though he understands their mass appeal.
"All you have to do is look at what the public has embraced," Platkin said. From South Beach to Atkins to the latest craze, the so-called French woman's diet, he laments that dieters are hooked on restrictive and sometimes even crazy eating plans.
"The only diets that work are the kind that you can make a lifestyle out of. So if you turn to a diet that says you can never have bread or that you can eat all the chocolate and croissants that you want, you are doomed to failure," he said.
Doomed? "A lot of diets will take off pounds initially. But to achieve success you must take on the persona of that diet. You have to become a person who doesn't eat bread, even if you love bread. It can succeed, until you go off it," Platkin, who writes a syndicated column, "The Diet Detective," said.
Busted myths
While the competing books each have their own approach, they share an emphasis on myth-busting.
Two fallacies Miller-Kovach emphasizes: "That carbohydrates are bad," she says, noting that while white bread, cookies and doughnuts are not healthful choices, there are plenty of carbohydrates that fit into a healthful lifestyle and are vital to good nutrition. Vegetables, for example, have lots of carbohydrates.
"One of the things that we emphasize in the book is that people really are unique," she said. " I may be someone who does better with protein at breakfast. Someone else may do fine with a bowl of cereal. Part of what makes someone successful in a diet is finding out what works best for them."
Another myth that surprised even Miller-Kovach revolves around the belief that success depends on how much you exercise.
"Exercise is vital to most people's success," she added.
"But one of the biggest myths out there is that exercise is the holy grail when it comes to weight loss." Indeed, she notes even a vigorous, hourlong workout won't undo a six-pack of beer, a big slab of cheesecake or a platter of deep-fried appetizers. "If you come home from a walk and dig into the cookies, you are not going to accomplish much," she said..
What exercise does for dieters she says, "is buy them a little wiggle room." It can burn up those extra calories you need to enjoy the occasional slice of pizza or a cookie here and there.
"But if you think exercise means you can eat anything you want, you are buying into the myth," Miller-Kovach said.