A word about diets

Jenny sent me an email in which she said "...from some research results I've read people aren't constructed to be able to stay on restrictive diets, even if lots of people do say they work. I think they dont." I agree absolutely, and that's part of the reason why I set up this blog. I'm hoping to become living proof that exercise and eating sensibly without actually doing the diet thing is the way to go. The reason calorie-restricted diets don't work, in a nutshell, is because they put your body into starvation mode, in which it uses the calories from food more efficiently in order to still be able to store some as fat.  Your metabolism slows down and you have no energy.  And then, when you go off the regime because you can't stand it any more, you're still in starvation mode, and lo, you put on more weight than you ever took off through the diet!  This effect is known as yo-yo dieting.  Don't do it! Note: I am not a medical practitioner or expert of any sort. My opinion is gained through years of experience and some reading. For a proper explanation of this by a proper expert, look for this book.  It has the words DON'T DIET written in large friendly letters on the cover. (Written by Dale M. Atrens, Ph.D., published in 1988 by Bantam Books and Schwartz Publishing. The ISBN for the edition I have is 0-86753-402-8.)  I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that this book saved my life - at the very least, it saved me from becoming one of those unfortunate people who don't go out because they can't get through the door. Oh, and guess what annoys me most of all... because I mention the D word in my blog, the banner ad at the top of the page is automatically picking up ads that specifically promote the very type of attitude that causes all this grief for people like me and Jenny. But I have a technical solution in mind... if/when it works, you will see a different type of ad up there.