Eating Nutritional Foods vs. Dieting

There are several ways to work up a sweat. Some ways are more useful than others.

There are several ways to lose weight by controlling what we eat. As with sweating, some ways are more useful than others.

We can compare dieting to sweating by sitting in a sauna. Just as sitting in a sauna does not require movement, so does a lack of eating. Both ways will allow you to lose weight, but they aren’t the healthiest way of doing so. That’s because a lack of expended energy and a lack of nutrition can cause a body to hold onto fats and eventually shut down some critical life-maintaining systems in our bodies.

We can also compare eating nutritional foods to running a half marathon, swimming 3 miles, or biking 50 miles. Eating healthy requires action – it involves putting valuable nutrients into our bodies that feed it the vitamins and minerals it needs to perform at an optimal level. Running, swimming, and biking make us sweat, but unlike in a sauna, they require action – movement from several parts of our bodies. This movement keeps a body fit through a combination of stretches, repetitive actions and various intervals of high and low exercise.

When we starve the body, whether through lack of motion or lack of nutrition, we are not giving it the opportunity to remain healthy. Even if weight loss should occur through dieting and sauna-like sweating, the lack of nutrients and lack of movement means that the weight loss is unhealthy.

Eating various healthy foods often (in moderate portions) and exercising often (in moderation) allow our bodies to slim down and remain healthy naturally. Instead of dieting, why not just add healthy foods?  Instead of feeling pressure to exercise, find an activity you enjoy.  Start with the changes that you know you can make and stick with. Start small and keep adding.  Eventually, you will find yourself wanting to exercise more and more and you will crave healthy foods.