The Diet Fix: Why Diets Fail and How to Make Yours Work - Softcover

Freedhoff M.D., Yoni

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345814355 ISBN 13: 9780345814357

Publisher: Random House Canada, 2015

Synopsis

With over two-thirds of North Americans overweight and the $66 billion weight-loss industry only growing larger, a maverick obesity expert exposes how widespread myths about dieting prevent us from losing weight and getting healthy.
          At least 90% of diets end in failure and for chronic dieters, this can mean years of compounded frustration, disappointment and shame--baggage that won't make weight loss any easier the next time. But in The Diet Fix, Dr. Yoni Freedhoff breaks down the flaws in the way that we approach dieting and offers an exciting plan that will empower anyone to achieve lasting results.
     Combining years of medical practice and cutting-edge research about metabolism, nutrition and willpower, The Diet Fix exposes the 13 myths of modern-day dieting that so often interfere with weight loss as well as dieting's 7 deadly sins that so often lead to failures. Next, he presents a program that will reshape the way people mentally and physically approach dieting. In just 10 days, anyone will be able to see and feel results from this positive new method.
     In addition to being a proven, stand-alone weight loss program, The Diet Fix can also be applied in conjunction with any other diet, from Weight Watchers to Paleo to South Beach and more. Dr. Freedhoff provides detailed instructions for readers who want to reset their favourite weight-loss programs, turning them into the permanent success stories they were originally promised. This easy-to-use reset empowers dieters to navigate real life with a healthy, positive and constructive attitude--one that will prevent them from slipping back into the negative patterns that destroy weight-management success.

About this title

Review

Q&A with Yoni Freedhoff M.D. on The Diet Fix: Why Diets Fail and How to Make Yours Work

What misconception about dieting do you think causes the most damage?

The most damaging misconception about dieting is that our weights should all be “ideal” and that scales not only measure pounds, but also possess the ability to measure the presence or absence of health. It’s those messages that lead dieters to undertake wholly nonsensical approaches to weight management, and they also serve to help fuel society’s hateful weight biases.

What is Post Traumatic Dieting Disorder?

Post-traumatic dieting disorder or PTDD is the frequent consequence of years of recurrent traumatic dieting efforts. It’s a shared constellation of symptoms that often extends far beyond a dieter’s relationship with food and may include feelings of ineffectiveness, shame, hopelessness, loss of healthy body image, feeling permanently damaged, social withdrawal, and, at times, can even impact upon interpersonal relationships. Another very common symptom of PTDD is the belief that traumatic diets are required for weight management success; oftentimes folks with PTDD spend huge portions of their lives yo-yo’ing from one traumatic diet to the next. This leads to a vicious cycle of suffering, binge dieting, and feelings of inadequacy that sets people up for failure.

What is the most important factor in sustaining your weight?

The most important factor in sustaining your weight is not just tolerating, but actually liking your life and being both consistent, and, believe it or not, imperfect. Truly, your job in regard to both weight and health is to live the healthiest life that you can enjoy - in other words, to do your best. That said, it’s important to note that the best you can do over say, Christmas or a vacation, is very different than the best you can do during a plain, old, boring week, but that also doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still be thinking about things. Given our modern day Willy Wonkian food environment, not paying attention, for many, leads to easy gains, and given it’s so much easier to gain than it is to lose, remaining thoughtful, but not blindly strict, and doing so consistently, is crucial. Putting this another way - the healthiest life you can enjoy still needs to include chocolate, but that amount of chocolate needs to be the smallest amount that you need in order to be happy, and that amount changes day by day.

Why is the label of obesity misleading?

Unfortunately the label “obesity” carries with it a huge amount of societal stigma, stereotype and frankly ugly judgment whereby people who are described as “being” obese are regularly perceived and portrayed as lazy and gluttonous. Yet the presence or absence of weight really doesn’t define anyone. There are healthy people with weight to lose, and unhealthy skinny ones, and I certainly know plenty of beanpole gluttons. While there’s no doubt that medical risk rises with weight, risks are certainly not guarantees, and more importantly, weight does not and cannot be used to judge a person’s lifestyle. So if you’re ever writing about obesity, remember that a person cannot “be” labeled as obese, they can only have obesity, and that given the negative stereotypes and implications surrounding the word obesity, that distinction matters.

What is the biggest misconception you wish people could shake off about dieting?

The biggest misconception that I wish people could shake off about dieting is that suffering and sacrifice are dieting’s true determinants of success. Unfortunately, as a species, we just aren’t built to suffer in perpetuity. Consequently, weight that’s lost through suffering, through some combination of under-eating and/or over-exercising, is bound to come back.

What’s the best diet?

There really is no one “best” diet - if there were, there wouldn’t be tens of thousands of different diet books available, and weight struggles would be rare to non-existent. Ultimately a person’s “best” diet is the healthiest diet that they can enjoy, as diets that are merely tolerable, given food’s star billing as one of life’s most seminal pleasures, simply don’t last. Real life does, and frankly must, still include chocolate.

About the Author

DR. YONI FREEDHOFF, MD, CCFP, is the founder and medical director of Ottawa's Bariatric Medical Institute--dedicated to non-surgical weight management since 2004--and is widely considered to be Canada's most outspoken obesity expert. His weekly column in US News & World Report's online Eat + Run edition is regularly the most read on the site, and he writes periodically on issues of health, weight management and fitness for a variety of publications including Psychology Today and the Huffington Post, and daily on his award-winning blog Weighty Matters. He is also an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa and a sought-after international speaker. Dr. Freedhoff graduated with honours from the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, where he received the Betty Stewart Sisam Award as the graduating student who "has shown the greatest human understanding and care for the welfare and health of patients."

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House Canada
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0345814355
• ISBN 13: 9780345814357
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 352