A recent article in the New York Times asks, “Can fast food help you lose weight?” I applaud the restaurant industry for offering healthier food choices. But for the consumer, it’s buyer beware. Of course fast food can help you lose weight–if you take in fewer calories than you expend. Any change you make in your eating that reduces caloric intake will lead to weight loss. But the moment you return to your previous way of eating, you gain the weight right back. There is no sense in making changes in your eating that you can’t keep up for life.
Think of it this way: Let’s say you cut your calories to 1800 a day, lose weight, and then plateau for a period of time. The moment you start eating 1900 calories a day is the moment you start to gain weight back.
Short-term changes in eating only lead to short-term changes in weight.