The Baseball Diet, Helps Take It Off & Keep It Off

ORLANDO, Fla. - Jan. 14, 2015 - PRLog -- Along with weight loss expert, Dr. Wilfred Aguila, M.D., we’ll help explain why most Americans struggle with the same New Years Resolution of losing weight, and how Dr. Aguila’s new program, “The Baseball Diet,” can stop those bad habits that dieters constantly fall back into, without them even noticing it.

Every year millions of Americans make New Years resolutions to loose weight, get in shape, and live a healthier lifestyle. Yet, as the year goes on the only things getting thinner and lighter are their wallets. According to an ABC News online report the annual revenue of the weight loss industry is about $20 billion, a staggering number especially considering this only includes diet systems, supplements, and surgeries but not gym memberships, workout equipment, personal training, etc.¹

Bariatric surgeon Dr. Wilfred Aguila, M.D., a highly sought after weight loss expert, and author of the new diet and exercise program “The Baseball Diet,” warns dieters about buying into costly quick fixes or programs that don’t address the natural issues that come along with attempting to change eating and exercise habits. One of the reasons that many Americans find themselves experiencing small successes in the onset of diet or exercise plans but ultimately long-term failure is that it is so common to fall back into the rut of bad habits we are used to. But why is that? Dr. Aguila answered that very question.

“I believe that two main factors are working against each other here. The first is the fear of change. We get comfortable with our daily choices; we may not like the choices, but we feel safe with them. Many times we don't make a substantial change because we feel that we are in a zone that is safe. Why venture out and try your luck?

The other factor is [diet participants] not understanding the importance of determination. Our past experiences with success or failure will reflect on our ability to be determined.”²

Dr. Aguila’s new diet and exercise program attempts to succeed in this area where many other plans have failed. The program works in the same way that parents use games and competition to get children to cleaning up their room. By using the game of baseball, a sport in which basic rules are common knowledge to most Americans, the program has participants hitting, stealing and winning their way into healthy lifestyles without the realization that they are learning the habits needed for continued success while managing their weight. Even baseball player and manager great, “Sweet Lou” Piniella has bought into, succeeded with, and decided to fully sponsor “The Baseball Diet” program.

Although this is the first time this idea has been fully adopted into a diet and exercise program, the concept itself, known as ‘Gameification’, has been growing exponentially over the last few years. In a 2013 interview for Forbes Magazine author and New York University professor Adam Penenberg credited ‘Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Deloitte, Sun Microsystems, IBM, L’Oreal, Canon, Lexus, FedEx, UPS, and Wells Fargo’ with adding game-like systems to make mundane tasks easier to accomplish, make employees more productive or help them learn new training material.  In fact Microsoft released a game called “Ribbon Hero” to consumers in order to make learning Microsoft Office software fun and easier for consumers.³

The other major reason Americans struggle to maintain weight loss through typical diet and exercise programs is the body’s ability to adapt to change. Restrictive diets, or diets that inhibit the intake of certain food groups; or only allow a strict list of foods, eventually leave most participants’ progress stagnant after a short amount of time. According to most experts the reason for the weight loss plateau is that the body adapts to the changes in eating habits, and in turn reacts to the limited fat intake or acceleration in burnt fat by finding ways to hold onto that fat.

Dr. Aguila addresses these issues by, not only allowing the consumption of all types of foods but, changing the amounts of each food type consumed in “The Baseball Diet” every 3 weeks or “innings.” By changing up the diet after 21 days experts agree that the average person’s physiology does not have time to fully get used to your new routine, and therefore participants can continue their progress uninhibited.⁴

Sources:

Staff, Abc News. "100 Million Dieters, $20 Billion: The Weight-Loss Industry by the Numbers." ABC News. ABC News Network, 08 May 2012. Web. 11 Jan. 2015. (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/100-million-dieters-20-billion-weight-loss-industry/story?id=16297197)

Aguila, Will, M.D. "The Cycle Of Success: Achieving Your Healthy Weight In 2012." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 03 Jan. 2012. Web. 13 Jan. 2015. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/will-aguila-md/new-years-re...)

Schawbel, Dan. "Adam Penenberg: How Gamification Is Going To Change The Workplace." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 07 Oct. 2013. Web. 13 Jan. 2015. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/danschawbel/2013/10/07/adam-penenberg-how-gamification-is-going-to-change-the-workplace/)

Aguila, Wilfred, M.D. The Baseball Diet. Comp. Rebecca Berman, RD, LD/N. Tampa, FL: Wilfred Aguila, M.D. A&E Synergy Group LLC., 2014. Print.