Pre-reading questions
Have you ever tried to do something many times but failed? How did you feel?
What do you know about losing weight? Do you have any advice for someone trying to lose weight?
Have you heard of the yo-yo diet? What do you know?
How many times have you successfully lost weight – but finally gain it again further down the track?
Some people have difficulty with this for most of their lives. This is "yo-yo" dieting - a continuing problem of gaining and losing weight. Sometimes it is called "weight cycling".
So what causes Yo-yo Dieting?
When your diet includes bouts of eating nothing, missing meals, or very low calories - you are setting yourself up for the yo-yo effect. While it seems that you may lose weight quickly, sooner or later, the body changes and becomes used to having less calories coming in. The body changes or adapts to the new habit, and decides that energy must be conserved - and metabolism (the way the body burns food for energy) begins to slow down. Often this can be a 'plateau' - the weight loss that was at first achieved begins to slow down or stop.
Many people hit the wall at this point, and, struggling to keep to the diet, the weight begins to come back on. And what's even worse, is that for some people, the lowered metabolism means they end up with more weight than what they started with!
This is one of the problems with dieting (if you do it suddenly) - the body's metabolism becomes less efficient with each dieting attempt. The big calorie restriction also causes loss of muscle tone. Less muscle once again means a slower metabolism. The common signs of this are soft skin in the back upper arm area (due to loss of tricep muscle tone and subsequent fat gain).
Alternatives to the Yo-Yo
It is a mental and emotional blow to go through all that dieting, just to be back where you started.
Rather than suddenly dieting - hoping for a quick weight loss, it is better to take a more long term approach that could help you to keep the weight off.
Aim for modest or easily achievable weight loss (even small amounts of lost fat can improve your health)
If lowering calories, such as by eating less, do it slowly (i.e. don't suddenly drop 1000 calories per day).
Think of your diet as a healthy eating plan.
Look to change your lifestyle (activity levels and what and when and why you eat).
To break the weight loss plateau you need to give your metabolism a boost. Aim to increase your levels of physical activity. And if you are missing meals or eating too few calories you need to take a serious look at your diet and aim to eat more often (every 3 hours).
Don't skip breakfast.
Can you imagine still being on your "current" diet 1 year from now?
Guessing meaning from context
Try to guess the meaning of the words in bold and match them with their closest meaning from the choices in the right. The answers are below the table.
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further down the track |
A |
1 |
a flat place, not going up or down |
|
bouts |
B |
2 |
a failure, a disappointment |
|
setting yourself up |
C |
3 |
to not be able to continue or go further, to fail |
|
plateau |
D |
4 |
doing something that will cause some other action to happen |
|
hit the wall at |
E |
5 |
something that makes something increase a lot |
|
blow |
F |
6 |
some time later |
|
boost |
G |
7 |
to not do, to miss doing something or being somewhere you should be |
|
skip |
H |
8 |
periods of time when a lot of something happens |
A=6, B=8, C=4, D=1, E=3, F=2, G=5, H=7
Some discussion questions using the new words to help you better understand the word meaning and how to use them correctly. Try to use the words in your answer.
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<!-1. What health benefits can you expect further down the track if you lose weight? |
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2. Have you ever had bouts of dieting and then gained all your weight back again? What advice would you give to someone who is doing this? |
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3. From the reading, what are people setting themselves up for? How can they change this habit? |
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<!-4. Why do people reach a plateau in their plans to lose weight? What can they do? |
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<!-5. Have you ever tried to do something like lose weight, but hit a wall? What advice would you give to someone who hits the wall in their plan to lose weight? |
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6. Have you ever had a blow to your confidence? (example you didn't get or achieve something you wanted) |
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7. How can you boost your metabolism? |
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8. Why do you think skipping breakfast is a bad idea? |
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|
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Some example sentences using the new words to help you to better understand their meaning.
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<!-1. If we invest money now, then further down the track our company will see more profit |
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<!-2. There have been bouts of bad weather this month. |
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3. If you invest too much money in one kind of share or stock (e.g just in the KOSPI) then you are setting yourself up to fall. |
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<!-4. The dollar rose dramatically and then plateaued at 1.25 to the Euro. |
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<!-5. The construction company hit a wall, they could not get permission to build a new road because of protests. |
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6. Losing 30% in the stock market has been a blow to people wanting to invest. |
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<!-7. The U.S. Federal Reserve tried to boost the economy by lowering the cost of borrowing. |
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<!-8. Many students skipping classes makes the professor angry. |
ECK Education
