Programming - Problem Solving Increasing

Programming - Problem Solving

INCREASING DIET PROGRAM EFFICIENCY THROUGH UNDERSTANDING Overweight and clinical obesity are among the fastest-growing causes of illness and reduced life expectancy in the United States, despite the fact that annual ales of diet books and other weight-loss products amounts to a billion-dollar industry (Baldauf, 2008). More specifically, the overwhelming majority of those who attempt to implement purposeful dietetic changes to lose weight relapse within one year, even after significant short-term successes achieved through restricted diets.

According to weight-loss specialists and nutritionists, this is mainly attributable to the degree to which the most common dietetic programs selected all prescribe changes in diet that are: (1) devoid of practical instruction in nutritional science, and (2) based on restrictions that require adherence to rules that exceed the capabilities of dieters to maintain for the long-term (Larson-Duyff, 2002).

Weight reduction over the short-term (i.e. two years or less) is possible to achieve through almost any program, whether simple calorie restriction or the elimination of large classes of calorically-dense foods (Larson-Duyff, 2002). However, in the longer term, dieters are rarely able to maintain those types of approaches to weight loss beyond a year or two. In that regard, it makes little difference whether a weight-loss program prescribes an emphasis on lowering calories across the board, near elimination of carbohydrates, or the near elimination of fats instead. Most dieters will experience a reduction in their ability to maintain any such diet within less than a single year, and very often, much sooner (Baldauf, 2008).

According to the experts, the most effective solution to this problem is: (1) to increase the understanding of fundamental nutritional principles and distinctions among dieters, and (2) to prescribe less drastic changes that are more consistent with long-term maintenance (Larson-Duyff, 2002). That means teaching dieters the difference between complex carbohydrates and simple carbohydrates, for example, instead of prescribing a nearly complete moratorium on all types of carbohydrates in the manner of the very popular Atkins Diet (Larson-Duyff, 2002).