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Paging Dr. Gupta: The Skinny on Fad Diets

Aired March 28, 2002 - 11:24   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Are you tired of yo-yo weight loss and gain, and diets that just don't work? And, when it comes to fad diets, how do you separate fact from fiction?

This morning, we have the skinny on fad diets. Last hour, Dr. Sanjay Gupta talked about diet disasters, and others that might work. Now, we're taking your questions, along with Dr. Gupta.

We also have Liz Weiss, a nutritionist, and she is joining us from Boston this morning.

Liz, good morning.

LIZ WEISS, NUTRITIONIST: Good morning.

KAGAN: And good morning to you, Sanjay. Welcome back.

Glad the image of you in bikini didn't scare you off.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Surprised anybody is still watching.

KAGAN: Anyhow, you can make and now have the e-mail questions. The first question is from Mama Linda (ph) in Dallas. I'm thinking maybe Dallas, Texas. She writes, "After too many fad diets, and losing and gaining back all that weight, I suspect my metabolism is messed up. Despite eating moderately, and mostly very healthy, going to water aerobics three times a week, riding a bike 50 miles a week, I can't seem to get any weight off, although I don't gain any. Any suggestions."

Liz, let's start with you.

WEISS: Well, you know, it's interesting, when you go on fad diets, obviously your restricting your calories quite dramatically, and your body thinks it's in a state of starvation, so it literally slows its own metabolism down, so I suspect that's what I suspect is happening to this viewer.

To speed up your metabolism, she's on the right track, eat a healthy, well-balanced diet, exercise, and when you do exercise, incorporate some weight training. I don't mean big weight lifting, big muscles, but you do want to build up your weight, your muscles somewhat, because muscle burns a lot of calories. It's very active. So light weight straining would be my recommendation.

KAGAN: So she can add that to her water aerobics and her bike riding. Good suggestion.

Let's move on Valdosta, Georgia, and this one is from Ann. She took a severe measure that a lot of people -- that some people do in -- with trying to lose weight. She had gastroplasty surgery in 1985 which controlled my weight. "I started having difficulties the last few years, was down to 99 pounds, and had reversal done in 2001. Now after four months, I have gained 80 pounds. I don't even have to overeat to gain. Help! What can I do?

KAGAN: First of all, what is that surgery?

GUPTA: Well, first of all, the gastroplasty surgery is actually something that's become a lot more common recently. Carnie Wilson I think popularized it the most recently. But it's actually stomach stapling, people who feel they can reduce the size of their stomach, that might actually reduce size of their weight over the long term.

Certainly in some situations as we hear, you just can't eat sometimes, you can't eat enough, and that's why the drastic weight loss, down to 99 pounds, and that obviously can be dangerous. And what also happen during that time is your stomach becomes much more efficient. So whatever little food you are eating, it's processing that very quickly. So you can imagine then when you unstaple the stomach or have a reversal done, your stomach just absorbs everything you eat, dramatic weight gains after that. It's probably time to try and reallocate your portions of food, to try and figure out how much you should be eating now with, as you say, dramatic sort of steps.

KAGAN: Liz, this next one is for you from Indianapolis, Indiana: "Could you explain the differences between saturated and unsaturated fats, and which are more healthy to consume?"

Are there good fats?

WEISS: Yes, overall, there are good fats. Overall fat has received a ad wrap over the years, but some fats are better than others. Saturated fat, that's the kind of fat found in red meat, the skin of chicken, butter full fat dairy, and we know that saturated fat can raise cholesterol levels, and may increase the risk are of certain cancer. Is that the kind of fat we want to minimize in the diets, or the kind of fat we actually want to eat instead of that saturated fat are the monounsaturates and the polyunsaturated fatty acids. Now the monos are found in things like olive oil, and avocados and nuts. So if you're using butter, you might want to switch over to olive oil, for example.

The polyunsaturated fats are found walnuts, kanola oil and seafood, things like Omega III fatty acids that you may have heard it in things like salmon, very, very good for the heart.

So again, get the saturated fats down and increase those mono and polyunsaturates.

KAGAN: What about those legumes that you love, Liz?

WEISS: We do love those.

KAGAN: We do love the legumes.

WEISS: You haven't forgotten about those.

KAGAN: Just had to say the word.

Let's move on to Peter from New York. He has a situation I think a lot with relate with. Peters, 34 years old. He said he eats right, meats twice a week, moderate sweets, lots of fruits and greens. He has office work, and he goes to the gym and he runs 30 minutes twice a week. He's a busy. His height is 6'5", his weight is 238, and he doesn't seem to be able to lose weight.

Peter wants to know, what's going on with him, Sanjay?

GUPTA: Well, I'll tell you, it's really a question as we talked about so many times of metabolism, and we can say it, eat less, exercise more. And sometimes for someone of that size, that's sort of what it takes to really change your metabolism. Liz had already mentioned weight training in addition to all of that.

What that extra muscle mass does in addition to your body's already existing muscle is it gives you improved metabolism, increased metabolism, so whatever food you eat, the moderate sweets, the meats twice a week, will be processed much quicker.

It sounds like it's a pretty good exercise regimen. If you really want to lose weight, you can exercise more and try and eat less.

KAGAN: Liz, what about the size of somebody as different clients come to you. I mean, Peter just sounds like big guy in general, 6'5", 268. Would you have same kind of diet for him as woman who is 5'2".

WEISS: Well, absolutely not. Someone who is that tall really doesn't need a lot of calories. With this person in particular, he may think that he's overweight, but indeed his muscle may be raising the number on the scale, because muscle, while it burns a lot of energy, muscle weighs a lot. So the weight may be largely muscle weight.

I think who sort of get obsessed with the number on the scale need to think, gee, is my weight making me comfortable. Am I happy with this weight. Am I happy how I look in my clothing? Am I healthy? What's my cholesterol, my blood pressure? So don't just look at the number on the scale, but start to refocus your attention to your health, your overall health. And if you feel you're in good health and you like how you feel in clothes, then I think time to kind of stay on that steady track.

KAGAN: Very good advice. Liz Weiss, always good to see you. Thank you so much. Sanjay, the producer gave me one last e-mail that they want to do from Amy in Chapel Hill. Apparently, we'll getting a lot of e-mail like this. "Sorry, I have to tell you, our house, the sorority house, suddenly has been having CNN on from 10:00-12:00 every day. Dr. Gupta rocks. And by the way, we're all on diets.

GUPTA: Thank you, Chapel Hill. And thank you, Daryn, for that and the producer.

KAGAN: Go UNC.

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