Lose Weight Honestly? Trivia Quiz

Answer: I must burn more calories than I eat

Finding a magic shortcut to weight loss remains one of the hottest selling items for health magazines, gyms and the medical industry. Over 60 billion dollars are spent on diet plans, food bars, pills and supplements in the US alone each year. Yet despite the plethora of diet miracles and cures why are more than 1.5 billion people worldwide considered overweight? The answer is unfortunately there is no magic cure for overeating and being overweight.

The science of weight loss remains unchanged: a human body must burn more calories than is eaten to reduce total mass.

At the same time research consistently concludes that physical activity, combined with reduced caloric intake and eating healthy foods, are the most efficient ways to control weight over the long term without harming your body.

Answer: False

One of the great weight-loss myths is that if losing weight is simply burning more calories than eating, by eating nothing you will lose weight. It is true that if you reduce your daily calorie intake to zero the simple act of living will consume more calories than you have eaten and you will lose weight. However when you regularly eat too little food you fail to give your body the necessary nutrients it needs and you go into what scientists call "starvation mode". Starvation mode occurs when the body slows down your metabolism to conserve energy so that vital organs (brain and heart) are fueled for as long as possible. While you will burn energy stored as fat cells the body will also start burning lean muscle mass. A starvation diet will show results in terms of reduced weight in the short run; however the diet is actually a vicious zero sum game for the dieter. Each day you place you body in starvation mode your metabolism gets progressively slower. A slower metabolism needs less fuel and thus you must correspondingly eat less and less to burn more calories than consumed. But as your metabolism slows down and your muscle mass is reduced fatigue comes quicker and exercise harder, further reducing muscle and reducing your metabolism more.

Since prolonged starvation results in death, eventually you will return to eating. The replacement of fat is easier than muscle mass so that people on starvation diets will usually find that they regain weight they lost and often gain even more as soon as they start eating again.

Answer: Eating only foods available to early hunter-gatherer societies

The caveman or paleolithic diet is a scheme based on eating plants and wild animals similar to what cavemen were presumed to have eaten before the introduction of food processing. The theory is that hunter-gatherer societies did not suffer from obesity and that the introduction of new foodstuffs and cooking techniques increased people's weight. Thus by eating only the foods available to early man a modern person can return to the body weight of their ancestors. Fans of the paleolithic diet claim it is the biologically appropriate diet for humans with a proper balance of nutrients to promote health and reduce the incidence of chronic diseases.

The type of foods you can eat on the caveman diet include animal meat, fish, shellfish, eggs, tree nuts, vegetables, roots, fruits, and berries. But a true Paleolithic diet is impossible to recreate as wild game is not readily available and most animal proteins come from domesticated sources.
What you will not find in this diet are any dairy, grains, sugar, beans, potatoes, processed oils, and any foods that were grown after agriculture started. You would have little or no salt or any liquids other than water or pure fruit juices. You will not be able to use cooking oils or any processed foods. Since the caveman both hunted and gathered, exercise remains a key element of the diet.

Nutritionists do not have any real health concerns with this diet and actually support the notion that a well regimented caveman diet will produce healthy weight loss. However the extreme limitations of the diet both in terms of the foods available and the cooking techniques make the problem with the diet age old as well. Broken down to its basics the paleolithic diet is a diet that says by eating less fat, healthy natural foods, no alcohol or sugar combined with exercise you can lose weight. If we could do that we would not be overweight in the first place.

Answer: Bacon

The Atkins Plan is based on the claim that carbohydrates are consumed by the body for energy before protein or fat. Thus by reducing the carbohydrate intake to as close to nothing as possible the body will then turn to stored fat reserves for energy. This process is called ketosis. As such the diet features almost unlimited access to proteins such as bacon and nearly no starchy vegetables or grains. Caffeine is considered bad because it stimulates an overproduction of insulin, which ultimately promotes weight gain. In its initial form the Atkins Plan did not require regular exercise but later versions recognize the increase of ketosis levels from exercise.

The Atkins diet has many critics and is quite polarizing. The scientific community does not dispute the basic fact that carbohydrates are generally less dense than protein or fat and are consumed first in normal metabolic reactions. However the conclusion that you can most effectively lose weight solely by eliminating carbohydrates (sugars) is challenged. Critics point out that proper brain function requires a sustained level of carbohydrates; while another group quibbles that any diet that does not limit calories at all is doomed to fail. Perhaps the sharpest critics of the diet are cardiologists who fear that large increases in animal proteins into a diet would increase stroke, high blood pressure and heart disease risks.

At the same time the Atkins plan can be given credit for their rather direct statements on a vegan option. As the Atkins website states "Animal proteins are a vital component of the Atkins Diet and the diet cannot be done successfully without them. They contain many essential fatty acids that cannot be found in any other sources. A vegan cannot be on the Atkins Diet."

Still any diet that would criticize me for NOT eating enough bacon cannot be totally ruled out.

Answer: Gastric bypass

Gastric or bariatric bypass is the closing of part of the stomach to reduce the size of the food cavity, thus giving the person the feeling of being full faster. Gastric bypass can occur using a silicon band or the more common Roux-en-Y gastric bypass where a small part of the stomach is used to create a new egg-sized stomach pouch. The pouch is connected directly to the middle portion of the small intestine bypassing the rest of the stomach and the upper portion of the small intestine. The surgery is supposed to be limited to patients who are morbidly obese with secondary health issues like diabetes or cardiac problems.

However the instances of the surgery being used as a quicker alternative to diet and exercise can not be discounted. In 1993 fewer than 17,000 gastric bypasses were performed; but by 2012 there were over 150,000 operations. These numbers are likely to rise as the procedure becomes less invasive and costly. Studies indicate that the average patient using a gastric bypass and following the course of after treatment will lose 100 lbs.

Answer: Weight Watchers

In 1961, Jean Nidetch from Queens, New York, called a group of friends over to her house and confessed that she ate too many sweets and could not motivate herself to lose weight. Jean and her friends sat in her living room and provided support and encouragement for each other's weight loss goals. Jean and many of her friends found that through the efforts of the group they could stay motivated and lose weight. In 1963 the small support group became Weight Watchers, Inc. The company was successful and ironically was sold in 1978 to food and condiment giant H.J. Heinz, Co. In 1999 Heinz sold the company and in 2001 Weight Watchers went public.

Over the years the company has refined its formula for success a number of times, moving from the strictly advice and support model to selling prepared foods and finally to a combination of both methods. Still highly successful, Weight Watchers is represented in over 30 countries and has tens of thousands of clients.

Answer: custard donuts

There are more diet miracles on the market than I can count. There are diets that espouse the efficacy of ingesting both green tea and green coffee extract as the key to breaking down fat. One diet suggests that ingesting large amounts of coconut oil, itself highly caloric, will grease the wheels to losing weight. At least the apple cider vinegar diet is based on a low-calorie supplement but there is no evidence that ingesting large amounts of vinegar aids in weight loss. To my knowledge no one has created a diet I can get behind -- the eat all the donuts you want diet.

The problem is that the internet and other media inundate consumers with ads and claims for weight loss supplements, each supplement in turn claiming that research and clinical studies have "proven" their value as the panacea for quick weight loss. Supplements that neither claim curative effects or nutritional value (food) do not normally require certification testing in the US and most other countries. As such you can claim almost anything in an advertisement without repercussion. More, the supplement industry floods the internet with self serving testimonials and dubious scientific studies that confuse most dieters. Unfortunately, according to the Mayo Clinic, such popular supplements as bitter orange, chromium, green tea extract, chitosan, apple cider vinegar and hoodia were either "likely ineffective" or "without sufficient data to investigate" their value.

Answer: SlimFast

The SlimFast diet was first popularized in the 1970s and is based on the use of meal-replacement drinks to reduce calories and fat intake. The product has marketed its weight loss plan as "a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch then a sensible dinner" across the globe. In 2000 the giant retail company Unilever purchased the Slimfast brand for 2.4 billion dollars. However sales of the weight-loss drink have dropped as much as 80% since 2002 due to the advent of low carbohydrate diets and increased competition in the weight-loss marketplace.

At root the Slimfast program is based on good science. The drinks average about 200 calories. So by limiting yourself to eating the 200 calories for breakfast and lunch and eating a suggested 500 calorie "sensible" dinner a person would consume less than 1000 calories per day. However like most dieters if I could limit myself to a shake for breakfast and lunch and eat a sensible dinner I would not need Slimfast in the first place.

It is important to note that not all drinks are helpful to weight loss. Some products like the Ensure brand are designed to provide high amounts of calories and protein to aid in weight gain. Energy drinks like Rockstar usually contain high levels of sugar and caffeine and are not intended as weight-loss tools. Further, while coffee and tea are themselves low in calories and contain no sugar, the popular premium coffee drinks preferred by many people are not good dieting supplements or meal replacements. For example a 16 oz. serving of the popular Starbucks Mocha Latte has 400 calories, 22 grams of fat and 33 grams of sugar.

Answer: Skipping meals can work to increase weight

Skipping meals can actually work against a dieter. Ultimately fewer calories is the goal but the calories saved from skipping a meal are usually returned and multiplied by the now-hungry eater at the next meal. Balanced nutritious food to fuel the body and avoid starvation is better for promoting weight loss.

Many people have been told that eating in the evening before retiring for bed is worse than eating in the morning as your metabolism slows during sleep and late calories "go to fat" faster than early calories. There is no scientific evidence to support this myth. However eating EXTRA calories at night after you have consumed calories all day simply adds to the total calorie count. Similarly, there is no truth to the myth that small meals increase metabolism and help burn fat. Eating smaller meals more frequently will only help if the total caloric intake is less than your previous activities. Another myth is that certain foods burn fat. No food has been proven to burn fat or by itself increase your metabolic rate. There are some foods such as lettuce, carrots and celery that are "negative calorie" foods in that you burn more calories by chewing than they had to start with. This is why many diets allow you to eat as many carrots or celery sticks as you want so long as you don't put peanut butter, dip, Vegemite or anything tasty on them.

Answer: Hair loss

The benefits of weight loss considerably exceed any of the potential negative side effects. Even a modest sustained weight loss can decrease risks of type 2 adult diabetes, and result in a lower level of cholesterol and lower blood pressure. Often successful weight-loss patients can reduce or eliminate the need for drugs and insulin to correct these and other negative health conditions. However one unwanted side effect to gastric bypass surgery or any other sudden weight reduction is the loss of significant amounts of hair.

Humans lose a portion of hair every day as a natural part of the hair cycle. During rapid weight loss the body is forced to live on significantly lower amounts of foods. While the goal is that the body will burn fat reserves and induce overall weight loss, the reduction in nutrients gleaned from food causes the body to ration the available nutrients and channel them to the important organs. Hair, which also requires nutrients to remain healthy, is not high on the organ priority list. To combat this hair/nutrient deprivation medical professionals suggest you make sure you ingest as much protein as you can.

This is not to mention the fact that hormones can go haywire after surgery and while all that fat is being metabolized. That just doesn't help matters.