THE QUESTION: I see the Cookie Diet is coming to Aventura Mall. I'm one of the millions who would love to lose some weight if it's not too hard. This one sounds great. I've tried some of these trendy diets over the years with mixed results. At least, they get you thinking about food choices, which is good. But are these diets safe to try?

Dawn Michelle Simon, Aventura nutritionist

THE EXPERT: Dawn Michelle Simon is a licensed registered dietitian with experience in implementing nutritional interventions for adults and children. She has over 20 years’ experience in dealing with digestive problems, developmental disabilities, obsessive compulsive disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, substance abuse /recovery and weight management. Dawn Michelle is based in Aventura and teaches her clients to use food, nutrients and movement to support the immune system and raise energy and vitality levels. Reach her at healthy@beautyofhealthyliving.com

THE ANSWER: You’re not alone because at any given time 70 million Americans are trying to lose weight, while pouring approximately$33 to $42 billion dollars annually into the weight loss industry.  The irony is that the rate of Americans classified as overweight and obese continues to rise year after year.

I applaud your effort to reach out  to get educated because obesity is a disease that can and should be managed. Dieting is serious and if not done right can be dangerous.

I’m so glad to that you bring up safety, because shouldn’t this be the goal of dieting in the first place?  Anything we can do to reduce our risk of disease is considered positive and healthful in my way of thinking.  Excess weight contributes to cardiovascular disease, cancer risk and diabetes.  So the bigger question here is two-fold; Do fad diets work and how does one lose weight safely?

Billions are spent every year in this country on the latest diet book, pill, special fruit juice, shake, nutrition bar, and now we have the cookie.  For a small portion of the population, any one of these diets will work but not for most of us.  They are way too general and cannot take into account all the variables that play a role in the biochemistry and lifestyle of the individual.

For weight loss to occur, here’s the very simple fundamental truth: You must take in fewer calories than you expend over a period of time.

But here’s the tricky part: To lose excess body fat, you have to eat enough to support your metabolism.  Our bodies have a very sophisticated signaling system constantly reading and adapting to the environment we create.  If we eat too little this sets off a cascade of events switching fuels from glucose and fat to glycogen and lean muscle tissue as well as encouraging the storage of fat.

This is why I measure all of my weight loss patients resting metabolic rate by indirect calorimetry.  With this number, I can calculate how many calories they require each day to lose body fat.   Then we can divide that up into a balanced diet with the appropriate number of servings from each food group or grams of protein carbohydrate and fat they need daily.

For instance you would think your cardiologist was nuts if he/she walked into your exam room and started prescribing blood pressure medication based on your age, weight and height without measuring your blood pressure. This is sort of what fad diets do. They set us up for yo-yo dieting and weight gain.

That’s not healthy because each time we lose and regain the same 10 pounds it becomes increasing more fat and less functional tissue that we need to survive.

My best advice if you want to losing weight, have a nutritionally sound weight loss program developed specifically for you by a licensed registered dietitian with expertise in weight loss.  Here’s the American Dietetic Association’s find-a-dietitian link:  http://www.eatright.org/cps/rde/xchg/ada/hs.xsl/home_4875_ENU_HTML.htm

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