Losing weight after having a baby

Q. I’ve lost weight from following a low-carb diet and also from following a diet of mostly fruit and vegetables and some whole-wheat bread. What is the best way to lose weight?

A. You’ve experienced what many people have—if you set your mind to it and follow a diet, any diet, you can lose weight. All diets ultimately reduce the amount of calories that you take in. The longer you stick to it, thereby keeping your calorie intake in check, the more weight you will lose.

Of course, not all diet-book authors ’fess up that the weight loss you see by following their plan is due to cutting calories. Those trying to sell their product need to hype why their diet is the most effective. They might claim that you will see better results because you are eating like a caveman, or according to your blood type; or because you are omitting carbs, or cutting out sugar; or reducing your insulin response to what you eat; or any number of plausible rationales.

Sure, you can lose weight on any of these plans. You can also lose weight while eating the very things some diet books say you shouldn’t. Many people eat bagels and pasta or include sugar in their diet, or they even eat junk food and lose weight.

Whatever you eat, if portions are controlled in some way, either by eating less or by knocking out foods that are normally on your menu, you’ll eat fewer calories and lose weight.

Talk to anyone who’s lost weight on a diet and you’ll get a multitude of reasons as to which diet works best. There are many individual factors that will determine why you prefer and experience greater success with one diet or another. The diet that’s easiest for you to stick to will be one that you feel most comfortable following, so you should like the ingredients and feel like the menus or food plans are easy to prepare or access. As Jared, the Subway guy, demonstrated, you can eat fast food and lose weight, as long as you are controlling your portions.

“You can eat all meat all the time, or all the ice cream you want, or go on an all-juice fast, but consider how healthy the diet is. ”

But some diets are better than others. Here are things to consider when choosing the most effective, healthiest diet for you:

Keep it real

You can eat all meat all the time, or all the ice cream you want, or go on an all-juice fast, but consider how healthy the diet is. If a diet plan recommends additional fiber or supplements, there’s a good chance it’s lacking key nutrients. While a supplement might help, it would take extensive lab analysis for you to know what nutrient and how much you might need, or whether there are needs that can’t be filled by an artificial supplement. Hands down, the best diet plan is one that is nutritionally complete using real foods.

A simple way to control calories and portions is to eat prepackaged, processed foods like shakes or food bars. If willpower and discipline are your main obstacles, relying on portion-controlled prepackaged or processed items may be a good choice for you, at least for a short time.

Control cravings

Which diet works for you also depends on your personality and how drastic the diet is. If you’re following a diet that cuts calories dramatically or if you are cutting out so many likable foods that you feel deprived, you will probably get hungry or have cravings. Many diets incorporate snacking or drinking extra water or recommend dosing up on certain foods such as high-protein items or more plant foods with extra fiber that might help you feel fuller. Feeling more satiated may make it easier for you to cut calories and stay on the diet. If you’re not hungry, you might be better able to resist the junk-food temptations that you’ll encounter.

Improve poor eating habits

It’s not just what you eat or don’t eat, it’s how you eat. A good diet plan includes this component, but there may not be a right or wrong way to go about it. Some diets claim that you should never eat at night or that you should always eat breakfast or that you should never eat bread. None of these habits will make you fat, but one might be a trigger for you to overeat. Many people can’t stop at one roll and eat everything in the bread basket. So it might be easier to just say “no†if you can’t say “stop.â€

Try to identify the triggers that lead you to overeat or to eat when you aren’t hungry, then figure out ways to avoid the triggers. Whatever diet you follow will be easier to stick to, and you’re more likely to see lasting results, especially if you can make your behavior changes permanent.

Work out

No ifs, ands or buts: You must exercise. Not only will you improve your health, you’ll see more lasting results. When you are losing weight, exercise is key for favoring fat loss, especially in your belly, and for preserving lean muscle tissue that might otherwise be lost, especially if you lose lots of weight fast.

Do cardio—walking, running, cycling, swimming or dancing—every day, if you can. Start with as many minutes as you can handle and work up to 60 to 90 minutes a day. And lift weights, including progressive resistance training for one to three days each week.

Aim for slow weight loss

Some diets claim to produce greater or faster weight loss. Don’t be fooled into thinking that is better.

Some studies have shown that in the short term, slightly more weight is lost from low-carb diets, although in longer-lasting studies, low-carb diets don’t tend to fare much better than other types of diets. If you follow a juice fast or drastically reduce your caloric intake, you’ll lose lots of weight quickly. While this may satisfy your psychological and emotional need to see dramatic results, faster weight loss is not necessarily better or healthier, and it’s definitely not more lasting.

Think long-term lifestyle rather than short-term diet

“Dieting†is a term that is pooh-poohed by many nutritionists because of its short-term implications. You can diet and lose weight, but inevitably, it will return once you go off the diet. So it’s better to change your mind-set. While you might want to lose 20 pounds in a month or two, it’s likely that unless you adopt healthier eating and exercise behaviors, you’ll gain that weight back—even if you manage to lose it. If you want to lose 10 or 20 or 50 pounds in the next year or two, and you commit to improving your eating habits and fitting in daily physical activity, you will get stronger, lighter and leaner, and it will be the best and healthiest weight loss, and it will last.

Do you have a fitness or weight-loss question for Martica? Send e-mail to experts@microsoft.com. Please include Ask Martica in the subject line. Each of our experts responds to one question each week and the responses are posted on Mondays on MSN Health. We regret that we cannot provide a personalized response to every submission.

Martica Heaner, Ph.D., M.A., M.Ed., is a Manhattan-based exercise physiologist and nutritionist, and an award-winning fitness instructor and health writer. She has a Ph.D. in behavioral nutrition and physical activity from Columbia University, and is also a NASM-certified personal trainer. She has written hundreds of articles for publications such as Self , Health , Prevention , The New York Times and others. Martica is the author of eight books, including her latest, Cross-Training for Dummies. (Read her full bio.)

Find all articles by Martica.

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