Translation help on two sentences related to dieting

Question

Here are two sentences I encountered in an articel in El Pais today:

"Enlazar un régimen exprés con otro lleva a la obesidad. Antes de vivir a base de pomelos, piense que si se resiste a la caña con patatas fritas evitará más de 500 calorías."

I am a bit confused as to what an accurate translation would be here. This is what I have been able to come up with thus far:

"To commit yourself to an express diet [maybe "crash diet", in our parlance] with another leads to obesity. Before living off of fruits [very uncertain of this phrase], think that if a container of fries is resisted, one will avoid more than 500 calories."

Can anyone help me out? The use of "lleva" confuses me here, and "con otro" is unclear to me, as I am uncertain of who/what the "otro" is. And I have never seen "pomelos" before...

Gracias.

pomelos are grapefruit - Izanoni1, JUN 5, 2010

Answer 1

Hi I'm new on this forum, but I think I can help you with this one phrase: "Antes de vivir a base de pomelos..." In English I believe it means, " Before living on a diet based on grapefruit..." ("pomelo" is the word for grapefruit in Spain).

Thanks for reading my answer. This is my first response, so I hope I did an okay job.

Hey. eproverbs...for your first time posting an answer, that was a great job! - mountaingirl123, JUN 5, 2010

Answer 2

I think you got the basic sense of the both sentences pretty well. Besides pomelo, you might also want to revisit the word caña. Here is a link to finding la mejor caña de España

I might try something like:

Getting tied up in one quick weight loss regimen after another leads to obesity. Before living on a grapefruit diet, you might stop and think that if you simply skip that glass of beer with your french fries you will cut out more than 500 calories.

Yours sounds pretty accurate to me - BellaMargarita, JUN 5, 2010

Thanks for point out cana! I was misreading it as cana DE patatas... this makes more sense! - aceydoubleyou, JUN 5, 2010

I just fixed the second link...sorry about that, I was having a rough time with the formatting for some reason - Izanoni1, JUN 5, 2010

this is perfect! - 00494d19, JUL 29, 2010

Answer 3

Like you, I think that the article is talking about a "crash diet."

Enlazar means to link, so "Mixing a crash diet with another leads to obesity." That doesn't make sense to me, but...

Lleva a is used as "leads to."

Before living/going on a grapefruit diet, just think that if you resist the fries etc.

Aaah, thank you for that insight about mixing diets.... I did not make that connection! - aceydoubleyou, JUN 5, 2010

De nada :-) - Delores--Lindsey, JUN 5, 2010

Answer 4

Exactly. Enlazar un .... con otro lleva a .... means "to link one with the other leads to ...".

The message is "even if you join 2 crash diets or you live off grapefruits, that will lead to obesity. Just think that resisting a portion of french fries you avoid 500 calories".

(which by the way... is absolutely true..!)

That´s what I thought orginally,sometimes I don´t what should be translated literally what should not be thanks. - BellaMargarita, JUN 5, 2010

Answer 5

Nice article.

Nazia Weight Loss

Answer 6

"pomelo" is the word for grapefruit in Spain

They sell pomelos in the stores here in Texas too, but they are usually much larger and of a different color than the grapefruit that comes from down in the valley.

Answer 7

I would say going from one crash diet to another Mixing doesn´t make sense and if that were so I am sure the writer would have used mezclar Hopefully a native with knowledge of dieting terms can sure say for sure. I agree with Delores´s translation of the second sentence Don´t forget the passive se can be used to mean an impresonal you or they.