Is Your Diet Making You Fat?
A Dieting Mentality Can Lead to Problems
-- By Liz Noelcke, Staff Writer
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It’s easy (and important) to focus on the calories, but you should also focus on the quality of foods your calories are coming from, as well as meeting other nutrient goals. There is a huge difference between eating 400 calories of chocolate for lunch and enjoying a 400-calorie salad, loaded with leafy greens, beans, tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers. For one, the salad will fill you up longer, and boost your protein, fiber, vitamin, mineral, and health-enhancing phytochemical intakes. Chocolate, on the other hand, will leave you hungry for the same number of calories.
Make sure you get the most out of what you are eating. If you eat too many high-calorie, low-nutrient foods, you're more likely to overeat and less likely to meet your body's nutritional needs. This increases your risk of lifestyle diseases related to diet, such as diabetes, high cholesterol, and osteoporosis. Think about the sources of your calories as you plan out your daily menu.
…you starve during the day and gorge during the evening.
You might think that eating as little as possible throughout the day will help you lose weight. Perhaps you skip breakfast altogether and only eat a small snack during the day. But if you don't fuel your body regularly throughout the day, you're more likely to binge in the evening—at dinner and into the late evening. Plus, without adequate nutrition all day, your metabolism will wane, and slow, making your energy levels low and weight loss even harder.
