>Your jeans are getting a little tight at the waist. The Christmas feasting was great but as you piled food on your plate, you were also piling on the kilos. There is another round of feasting ahead on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. After that, Chinese New Year. You are not going to hold yourself back because it has been a bad year and you feel a need to indulge. You tell yourself you will go on a diet in the new year and you will get rid of the extra kilos fast.
There is an array of weight-loss programmes touted for people just like you. These range from the LighterLife diet, a 12-week regime which requires you to cut food intake to 500 calories a day and drink four litres of water to compensate, to a Diet Coke-and-carrots-only plan. But think hard before you get started. Doctors here have warned these are fad diets which often do more harm than good. Last month, a 40-year-old British mother of five died after drinking four litres of water in two hours. She had been on the LighterLife diet. A National University Hospital doctor reported the case of a patient who went on the Coke-and-carrots plan. 'This patient was really underweight and her palms had turned orange from an overdose of beta-carotene,' the doctor said.
Even well-known weight-loss programmes like the Atkins diet carry risks. Doctors warn that the Atkins, which reduces carbohydrate intake drastically so that body fat burns more efficiently, can promote heart disease, bone loss and exacerbate liver and kidney problems. People with weight worries are better off heeding the old saw that most of the good things in life require restraint, effort and discipline. Eat moderately (restraint), exercise regularly (effort) and have enough sleep (discipline). This may be a motherhood statement, but it is worth reiterating to yourself as you enter the new year. The jeans may get looser and you, healthier. Have a happy new year.
