The Big Interview: The Truth Behind The Quick Fix Diets

Plus Size Tall has begun to conduct interviews with people in various industries, in order to pass on all sorts of information on to our readers.

This Big Interview will be with Tariq Osman, a professional in drug development.

His Big Interview will mainly concentrate on assessing some of the most popular ‘quick-fix’ diets. A little information will also be given about Alli – the weight loss aid.

Hi, Tariq Osman. Why don’t we go straight into it and start by telling us a little bit about low-carb diets and your evaluation.

One of the most famous diets that the population uses to lose weight quickly is any variant of a low carb diet. One of the most popular is the Atkins Diet, which has been proved to have serious side effects.

Low carb diets restrict your intake of carbohydrates, are high in protein and fat, especially saturated fat. This means a lot of meat, fish, eggs and cheese – and limited fruit and vegetables.

The idea behind the restriction of carbs is that instead of your body using carbohydrate for its energy store, it automatically starts converting your fat store to energy – helping you lose weight.

Whilst this can be effective, any diet that restricts almost entirely a whole sector of food is not good for your health – especially when they claim that you can eat everything else without restrictions!

By reducing your fruit and vegetable intake vitamin deficiencies and constipation as short-term problems. An increased risk of heart disease and diabetes from too much saturated fat is also a major problem.

I see. What about meal substitute diets like Slimfast?

These diets normally involve having a meal-replacement bar, shake or soup for two of your meals, and then eating a ‘healthy’ meal once a day.

The main problem with these diets is that although the amount of protein, vitamins and minerals the supplements contain is governed by law (and so they supply all the necessary micronutrients), you are not eating ‘normal’ food most of the time.

This means that you are not learning about healthy, balanced food choices, and so weight loss can be hard to maintain long-term.

Unless you change the unhealthy areas of your diet, you are likely to regain any weight lost.

So to sum up, diet changes need to be long-term decisions and not something you participate in for a couple of weeks.

Exactly – in order to lose weight healthily and still have a balanced diet, changes need to be long term and contain food from all the major food groups.

What about weight loss aids like Alli?

The Alli programme encourages you to lose weight gradually by eating three balanced meals a day and by following a reduced-calorie, lower-fat diet.

By adding Alli capsules, you can boost weight loss by 50%, so for every 2lbs you lose through your own efforts, Alli can help you lose 1lb more.

When used properly, weight-loss aids such as Alli can be very beneficial. However, do not be fooled, they will not make you miraculously lose weight.

In order to see progress with these capsules, you need to already be maintaining a balanced diet and be participating in regular exercise.

Thank you very much for your time, you’ve provided our readers with some beneficial information.

Next week Plus Size Tall will be looking at another Big Interview, so make sure you revisit us for some great advice and information.

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