Weight restricted diet: One control point to enjoy a happy and healthy life.

Diet is a complex aspect which determines directly and indirectly our health and nutritional status. Now a days, most of us are very much familiar with different approaches of diet plans (1) such as –

1. 1. General diet (2),
   2. Calorie restricted diet (3,4,5),
   3. Time restricted eating (6,7),
   4. Fasting diets (3),
   5. Food or nutrient restricted diet (8,9,10), etc.

Most of the diets are mainly focused on weight loss and/or metabolic health benefits (11,12,13,14,15,16). We also have a large group of people who wants to gain weight or maintain weight along with metabolic health benefits. It would be a simple and easy one step control of achieving or maintaining ideal body weight for all people who are assessed as normal, underweight, overweight and obese (17,18,19,20,21).

What to do?

First try to get a rough idea about your ideal weight based on your age, sex, physiological conditions, etc. (Weight Management | Learn Nutrition Online; Assess Your Nutritional Status | Learn Nutrition Online).

If you have options consult with a professional such as nutritionists, registered dietitians, doctors, etc. to get your ideal weight. Then it would be easy to get the differences between ideal/expected and actual body weight (less, equal or excess).

Now it’s time to assess the scopes/gaps for eating allowances of total foods (weight) per day by an individual. To simplify it, I used the following data set (hypothetical scenarios).

What next?

One simple control: Control or manipulate your daily food intake based on BWS (increase/maintain/decrease consumption of foods). When the amount of foods allowance (Kg) is determined start your wight restricted diet (WRD) using following approach:

Set a time for taking your body wight such as early morning/evening/noon before having any foods that is convenient for you. Count the difference (D) between your initial weight (kg) and Ideal /targeted weight to achieve. You may divide this weight (D) which is corresponding to the dietary/food allowance (total food and beverage intake or total caloric and non-caloric food) for each day. You may further divide total weight (D) into small portions such as foods in different meals (snacks, main meals): D=d1+d2+d3+…, etc. for easy management. Finally, continue food intake that you like till the body weight reached the Ideal Body Weight or Targeted Weight. Stope consuming food for that day when you reached the weight (D).

Here you may use the same plate or cups daily so that you may gradually have an idea about the weight of the foods consumed or served daily or per meal. Moreover, to reduce the burden of frequent measure of weight, you may check body weight infrequently such as daily, several days of the week, once per week or month, etc.

For example, you fall in the scenario of 2. You figure out that your initial body weight at the starting point (e.g., morning) was 45 Kg. So, you may be allowed to consume is D (50-45= 5kg per day or 2.5 kg in two meals or 1.25 kg in four meals, etc.) So, try to take food till you reach 50 kg body weight (e.g., at last meal in night or before if you start in the morning). Alternatively, you may stope consumption of any foods when reached a total count of all food consumed on that day is 5 kg (D). This would help you to maintain your existing weight (50 Kg). Occasionally you may have more foods. There should be maintain some ranges of flexibility (less or more) in food intake each day. So, one does not have much burden in following the diet. Here, weight of all foods (both solid and liquid) including water are included. Thus, you may monitor the progress in body weight changes.

In case of underweight, overweight and obese you do not need to force directly to 50 kg at the beginning. You may gradually increase and decrease food intake based of new targeted weight. It needs to change till reach to the ideal weight.

Meal(s) For A Whole Day: A Fixed Amount (wight) Of Diversified Foods. | Learn Nutrition Online

Advantages of weight restricted diet (WRD):

• It would not control or interfere with your food intake environment or patterns (22).
• Limitations of nutrition and food composition related knowledge would not be a major issue for choosing foods.
• It would help to enjoy food without much consideration or thinking about calorie counting, amount consumed, and time allotted for having foods during most of the time of the day with family and friends (23). These also help you to retain your native or own food taking environments. As a result, we may have more healthy and happy life (24,25,26,27).

Limitations of weight restricted diet (WRD):

It would not be able to control proportion of nutrients or foods in each menu. This limitation may be overcome if one follows the norms of having diversified food instead of monotony foods (28,29,30).

Let’s try weight restricted diet (WRD) for making weight management simple, effective and sustainable (Is Weight Management Difficult? Make It Simple. | Learn Nutrition Online)

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References:

1. 1. 16 Popular Types of Diet: How Do They Compare? – Nutrition Advance
   2. General diets | Agency for Clinical Innovation
   3. Calorie restriction and fasting diets: What do we know? | National Institute on Aging
   4. Comparing caloric restriction regimens for effective weight management in adults: a systematic review and network meta-analysis | International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity | Full Text
   5. Intermittent energy restriction and weight loss: a systematic review | European Journal of Clinical Nutrition
   6. Time Restricted Eating: A Dietary Strategy to Prevent and Treat Metabolic Disturbances – PMC
   7. Time-Restricted Eating: Benefits, Mechanisms, and Challenges in Translation – PMC
   8. The Effects of Different Degrees of Carbohydrate Restriction and Carbohydrate Replacement on Cardiometabolic Risk Markers in Humans—A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis – PMC
   9. Gout (Low Purine) Diet: Best Foods to Eat & What to Avoid
   10. Low-carb diet: Can it help you lose weight? – Mayo Clinic
   11. Clinical Evidence and Mechanisms of High-Protein Diet-Induced Weight Loss – PMC
   12. Calorie restriction, immune function, and health span | National Institutes of Health (NIH)
   13. Calorie-restricted diet mitigates weight gain and metabolic abnormalities in obese women with schizophrenia: a randomized controlled trial – PubMed
   14. Dietary restriction impacts health and lifespan of genetically diverse mice | Nature
   15. The effect of different dietary restriction on weight management and metabolic parameters in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials | Diabetology & Metabolic Syndrome | Full Text
   16. The Impact of Restrictive and Non-restrictive Dietary Weight Loss Interventions on Neurobehavioral Factors Related to Body Weight Control: the Gaps and Challenges | Current Obesity Reports
   17. Mechanism behind health benefits of dietary restriction identified | News | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
   18. Reducing Calorie Intake May Not Help You Lose Body Weight – PMC
   19. Calorie Restriction with or without Time-Restricted Eating in Weight Loss | New England Journal of Medicine
   20. 8-hour time-restricted eating linked to a 91% higher risk of cardiovascular death | American Heart Association
   21. Time-restricted eating doesn’t appear to boost weight loss – Harvard Health
   22. From Restrictive Diets to Balanced Eating: Navigating the Path to a Healthier Relationship with Food – Center for Healthy Eating and Activity Research
   23. The Complicated Relationship between Dieting, Dietary Restraint, Caloric Restriction, and Eating Disorders: Is a Shift in Public Health Messaging Warranted? – PMC
   24. Dietary interventions for obesity: clinical and mechanistic findings – PMC
   25. Fiber Intake Predicts Weight Loss and Dietary Adherence in Adults Consuming Calorie-Restricted Diets: The POUNDS Lost (Preventing Overweight Using Novel Dietary Strategies) Study – PMC
   26. The 10 rules of a heart-healthy diet – Harvard Health
   27. Common Dietary Restrictions to Look Out For
   28. Eating a balanced diet – NHS
   29. Healthy diet
   30. Healthy Eating Pyramid – The Nutrition Source

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