A chocolate cookie a day puts 20 pounds on an energetically-balanced kid ...( After summer holidays miracle-diet a...),Health

After summer holidays, miracle-diet adherents stick to these diets to lose the weight gained in the last months in record time. Gyms also become overcrowded with people making a final sprint of sacrifice whose results do not exactly match previous expectations and with few benefits for health. In the field of nutrition, miracles do not exist: in the same way we gain weight as years pass by, weight loss should be equally progressive, states Professor Emilio Martnez de Victoria Mu oz, Head of the Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology Centro Mediterraneo at the University of Granada (Universidad de Granada) in Spain.

It becomes clear that the energy needed by the body to carry out its functions comes essentially from food. Nevertheless, a whole range of hormonal and nervous mechanisms take part in body weight regulation, which makes such process a bit more complex.

When the amount of consumed calories is similar to that of calories used during the day, the energy balance is kept stable and, therefore, weight is kept constant. However, when consumed calories exceed used calories this balance is disturbed and weight is gained, as excess calories are stored as fat in the body. As an example, Professor Martnez de Victoria points out that an energetically-balanced girl who is given a chocolate cookie a day during four years will gain 20 lbs (approximately 9 kg) in that time.

The researcher affirms that miracle diets are useless to get a stable negative energy balance. There are no scientific foundations behind the vast majority of these diets and they usually restrict consumption of certain food groups, which entails nutrient deficiency whose consequences are serious health problems. In addition to this, miracle diets only help to lose weight in the form of glycogen and water not fat ? that being the reaso
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