Making a big splash
IT’S not hard to see why new slimming book Six Weeks to OMG: Get Skinnier Than All Your Friends has become a global sensation even before it hits the shelves early next month.
There’s the seductive promise in the title, the quick-fix appeal of the author’s claim that he can get you to lose 20lbs in six weeks. The author’s weight-loss theories manage to grab attention in an industry that has heard it all before — the advice to skip breakfast, ditch juices, drink black coffee and start each day with a cold bath is, arguably, more bizarre than telling you to subsist on cabbage soup or eat the same-coloured food on a given day. Plus the author writes in bright, sassy tones, getting in tune with the Facebook generation when he explains a meal’s ideal carb intake in terms of being four iPhones stacked up.
To be fair to the author, Venice A. Fulton, there is a scientific basis for some of his outlandish-seeming theories — drinking black coffee and having daily cold baths may well help you burn body fat. Nor is Fulton afraid to reiterate sensible weight-loss advice. He recommends getting good sleep, drinking water and avoiding sugars. And he’s not advocating the extreme elements of his diet for longer than six weeks.
The book grabbed international headlines at the start of summer, right about the time when people are thinking of going on a crash diet to look good on the beach, appealing to the many who view dieting as a quick-fix solution to an aesthetic problem. A short-term solution though, says Dr Daniel McCartney, dietician with the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute (INDI), who says such motivation rarely morphs into sustainable healthy lifestyle change.
So who’s the author? Venice A. Fulton is the pen name for Paul Khanna, a British-born personal trainer who has a degree in sports science. Six Weeks to OMG rocketed to the top of the iTunes health and fitness charts and sold 12,000 e-books within weeks. After bidding against ten international publishers, Penguin bought it for what’s believed to be a seven-figure sum.
Alongside the hoopla his book has generated, there are concerns — not just from nutritionists but from those who work with people suffering from eating disorders. Fulton says he isn’t targeting the teen market but Harriet Parsons of Bodywhys says the book’s message is already out there. “Teenagers pick up on all these sorts of messages.”
And the book’s title unashamedly hooks into a competitive factor among women. “Parents call our helpline, concerned about groups of girls in schools who are all ‘dieting’ together. What can start as a diet often quickly turns into competition to see who can eat the least, where friends don’t want to eat in front of other friends and hide what they eat,” says Parsons.
In a bid to see whether Fulton’s theories have got merit or not, we’ve asked Irish experts to give their take on the diet.
15-20 degrees for 15 mins every morning helps lose calories fast
“If you drop peripheral body temperature to 20 degrees, when you get back out of the bath your body will have to regain normal temperature of 37 degrees and that requires quite a bit of energy, which comes from burning body fat,” says Dr McCartney of INDI.
“It’s not completely useless but its impact wouldn’t be large and, in terms of sustainability, who wants to start the day with a cold bath?” Operation Transformation nutritional expert and author of The Last Diet, Dr Eva Orsmond, says jumping into a cold bath may help appearance of the skin but could be dangerous for overweight people who have a pre-existing heart condition.
The caffeine will help boost your exercise routine
Caffeine induces beta-oxidation, a process whereby the body switches from burning blood sugar or glycogen to instead breaking down fat to keep the metabolism going.
“The impact in terms of overall calorie expenditure is likely to be pretty moderate. And even though coffee might help to burn a little fat it will increase blood pressure in a small but noticeable way,” says Dr McCartney.
Running on empty for three hours at the start of the day will force your body to burn stored fat
“Virtually all the research shows that people who eat a high-fibre breakfast are much less likely to gain weight,” says Dr McCartney. “Eating breakfast kick-starts your metabolism. Even though you’re taking in calories, your metabolism’s switched on and that gets you to burn calories at rest.” And a high-fibre breakfast will not only fill you up ‘til lunchtime, it has a secondary filling effect that occurs 10 to 12 hours later. “When the fibre gets to the large intestine, it soaks up water and makes you feel fuller at 6-8pm, so it limits food intake at night.” Dr Orsmond says research finds that people who don’t eat breakfast have generally overfed themselves the night before.
“And if you don’t have breakfast, you’ll get very hungry later and end up looking for a quick fix, usually a few slices of toast with butter or a muffin.”
No.
Eat as little as one piece of fruit a day while dieting
“Research suggests that a high fructose [a sugar] intake causes fat to be generated in the liver. The good thing about taking fructose in fruit is that it gets absorbed relatively slowly so this effect is less pronounced,” says Dr McCartney.
Dr Orsmond would never recommend people eat bananas when trying to lose weight. Dr McCartney believes that cutting down drastically on fruit may have a relatively minimum impact in terms of weight loss. “Eating more fruit and vegetables means more fibre and a greater filling effect, which displaces other high-fat, high-sugar foods in the diet.”
Small, frequent meals often pack on the pounds
This is not true, says Dr McCartney. “Although it could be true if you’re having small frequent meals of fried foods and cake. But the eating pattern itself — of small frequent meals - is not at fault. There is nothing at all to suggest that this eating pattern would cause weight gain provided the meals and snacks are healthy, high-fibre and low calorie. In fact, this pattern of eating has been associated with weight loss because it keeps the metabolism ticking over at a higher rate.”
No, forget it.
Juices and smoothies cause overeating
Fitness consultant Pat Henry agrees. “You’ll take in more calories than you realise when they’re in liquid form [overall sugar content of juice is 10g per 100ml]. Juices cause overeating because the hit only lasts for 10 minutes and then you crave more carbs.”
You’re better off eating the orange rather than juicing it, says Henry, while Dr McCartney recommends smoothies over juices because they have more bulk and therefore fill you more.
Exercise is about much more than how much and how hard
When it comes to exercise, frequency, intensity, time and type are all relevant, says Dr McCartney. “You might lose 150 calories after half an hour on the treadmill but, for most people, the metabolic rates go up by 10 to 15% for about 24 hours following exercise, so you’re getting that good effect for about a day after you finish.” And you’re far better sticking to low-intensity rather than high-intensity exercise — but do it for at least 45 minutes at a time.
“Once we start exercising, it takes us a while to get into that fat-burning phase of beta-oxidation. Most people, if exercising at high intensity, will have to stop before they reach that point.” And, for the sake of sustainability, it’s best to pick an exercise you enjoy.
Yes.
Broccoli carbs are the same as soda carbs
“Broccoli’s an excellent food when you’re trying to lose weight,” says Dr Orsmond. “It has a high fibre content. We’re recommended to eat between 25 and 35g of fibre a day — 70% of Irish people don’t get a minimum amount of 15g a day, yet fibre keeps your internal transit system healthy.”
No. Soda is full of fructose and has no satiety value, whereas broccoli’s the direct opposite, says Dr McCartney. “It also has very important anti-oxidants and valuable nutrients like folate.”
Half of every meal should be protein
“This is to do with satiety,” says Dr McCartney. “If you take a meal that’s relatively rich in protein, the food usually stays in the stomach longer so you feel full for longer. It also slows absorption of carbohydrates and fat from the gut and that’s a benefit because we have a far better chance of burning off whatever comes gradually into the system.”
“There’s no harm in a meal having a relatively good protein content, but lots of protein foods are high in fat. It’s good to include a moderate amount of low-fat protein such as fish or low-fat milk,” says Dr McCartney.
Protein can create a lot of constipation, cautions Dr Orsmond. “But if it’s half a plate of fish, that would be ok.”
So what’s the expert consensus on the diet?
“The downside of all these kinds of diets is that they don’t implement enough behaviour modification. You learn nothing about preparing healthy, tasty meals. Its quirky advice is not sustainable in the long term,” says Dr Orsmond.
Some elements of the diet have been substantiated by scientific research, concedes Dr McCartney. “Coffee does help you burn calories. Exercise is important but you must pay attention to the parameters. Icy baths may require you to burn extra energy. But these ideas of skipping breakfast, reducing fruit intake and swapping broccoli for coke just aren’t justified.”
