I read a lot of diet books in my line of work as you might imagine - some of them are plain daft, some of them are pretty sensiible if you can stick with them but I never really thought about the cost of doing them.
After all, people coming to me for coaching are not really thinking about the price of the food the eat, more about working out how not to eat it...
Now and again, I do look at the difference in prices in the shops between the cheap mass produced foods and the expensive imported fruit and veggies in my basket but I never regret spending the extra.
Then I heard this week that Forbes have done a study of how expensive diets are - how much it costs to eat the diet rather than buy the program - and they found the average diet is way above the cost of an average budget for food - in some cases double.
But what do you do if you can't afford to spend so much? Is there an answer?
Well there is - But it's not so easy. It takes time. And imagination if you're not going to get bored with it all.
Nevertheless, if cost is an issue, you may want to skip the formal dieting altogether and just eat on good principles:-
- skip the junk - that should save you money
- drink water rather than anything else - ditto
- fill up on cheaper fruits and vegetables - they are usually the ones in season locally which are usually healthier anyway - and wholegrain carbohydrates - they are the ones with the goodness still in them
- cook yourself rather than eating out
- bulk out soups, casseroles and stews with vegetables and pulses
- eat only what you need and no more
- cook double and freeze the rest for another day - otherwise buy just what you need and avoid wasting food
- learn to cook with herbs and spices to add variety to your cooking. Find recipes online or in books at your local library.
In fact, needing to save money or not, those principles wouldn't do any of us any harm.
Research into the existence of a gene which controls fat formation continues apace with new information coming to light regularly in the scientific press.
Whether a fat gene exists or not (and I do think it is harder for some people to lose weight) will not make a jot of difference to you and your body.
The only thing which makes a difference is how much and what you eat and how much you move.
You can decide you have fat genes and give up or you can take action and succeed at losing weight.
Yes, it might be harder for you than your best friend or your partner but there's no point in comparing yourself with them. Do what you need to do to lose that weight.
Sometimes my clients fondly imagine they have a fat gene - when they are really just eating too much and not moving enough.
On the other hand, if you have a treatable medical condition such as a thyroid problem which makes it extremely difficult to lose weight no matter what you do make sure that you see your doctor for help.
'Skinny Gene' Does Exist, UT Southwestern Researchers Find
A study of 24 middle-aged men in Canada has shown that rigorous exercise can shrink your waistline even if you eat calories to compensate for all the activity you do.
The men did aerobics for an hour, five times a week for three months and were told to eat additional calories to cover the amount they were burning.
The waist size of the men shrank by an inch whether they started out as slim or obese.
Another benefit of exercise to stack up with all the others.
Yet, just think what would have happened if they hadn't eaten the additional calories - they'd have lost about 15 pounds of fat too. What a waste of three months exercise!
Charlotte Observer | 09/09/2007 | Study: Exercise helps, even without weight loss