Weight Loss Advice from 1920: Does It Still Hold Up Today?

Published in the very first issue of Reader's Digest magazine, the article "How to Regulate Your Weight" is full of diet tips that are surprisingly forward-thinking—along with others that are woefully outdated. Here, key weight-loss lessons we can all re-learn
.

1920 Tip: “Each of us has an ideal weight which is perfectly easy to attain and still easier to retain.”

2013 Update: The concept of a “set point” is scientifically valid, notes David Katz, MD, founding director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center and editor in chief of the medical journal Childhood Obesity. “There is a weight range that is normal for any given body, based in part on genes and in part on weight established in childhood.” But that set point will vary depending on your lifestyle and environment. For example, more exercise and more muscle mass will lower the amount of body fat as the set point, Katz explains. 

It’s also not necessarily easy to maintain your ideal weight, notes New York City-based nutritionist Keri Glassman, MS, RD, author of The New You and Improved Diet. “Convenience foods, large portion sizes, more hours of work and lack of sleep and more stress have all contributed to increased weight.”