Losing weight is hard. If you’re reading this, we probably don’t have to tell you that. To make the process easier, people have come up with all sorts of kooky ways to slim down.
Every year, an estimated 45 million Americans go on a diet. Most of these diets fail because they are what is known as “crash diets,” or unhealthy diets designed to achieve very fast results. But these simply do not work, because they’re too extreme to be sustainable.
And losing weight isn’t an activity you do once. Permanent weight loss requires a lifestyle change you can actually maintain. Unless you’re content never eating carbs again, a crash diet simply won’t work.
If you’re unconvinced, keep reading.
Reasons Why Crash Diets Do Not Work
If your goal is long-term weight loss, it is paramount that you understand that crash diets are not the way to go. It is common to find many people embracing crash diets to lose weight quickly, particularly when they have an important occasion around the corner.
They are however doomed to fail. Fad diets are not only terrible for your health in the long run but also offer a short-lived solution. The purpose of this article is to give you insights onto why crash diets fail to work.
Crash Diets Lead to Metabolic Problems
Metabolism is the primary factor when it comes to achieving weight loss goals. As such, boosting your metabolism will be a major milestone in the overall weight loss and health goals.
Unfortunately, crash diets terribly hurt your metabolism. When you restrict calories, the body senses starvation and tries to protect its fat level by lowering metabolism.
This leads the body to work on fat storage rather than fat burning mode. Sensing panic, the body interprets the restriction of calories as a threat to nourishment and will automatically change its metabolism to rebel against the sudden diet change.
The body gets used to managing the fewer calories that you are taking by producing lipoprotein enzymes which enhance the storage of blood fats and transfers them into body fats.
Once you resume your normal diet, your body will now burn fewer calories having been used to surviving on less and stores the rest leading to weight gain.
They Encourage Water Weight Loss
It is important to note that your body retains water depending on the number of carbs that you are taking. For this reason, reducing the number of carbs will mean that your body will fail to retain a lot of water and you will urinate a lot of the water already retained in the body.
Urinating a lot of water will make you appear slimmer, but this appearance is temporary since what you lost is not fat weight but water weight. What triggers this false fat weight loss is the fact that your body will tend to lose water and protein and hold fat as its last resort.
Water weight is easily recovered, and when your body loses water and protein you are likely to feel drowsy which make crash diets unsustainable and harmful.
They Lead to Fat Deficiency Issues
You will not eliminate only the bad fats in your body when you are on a crash diet. You will also reduce fats that are needed by your body. This will cause a deficiency in useful fatty acids, and this comprises your long term health.
Crash diets are unhealthy and once you resume your normal diet you are likely to eat more to regain the lost fat. The healthiest way to control fat intake is not eliminating fat intake in your body but rather focusing on consuming the right fats.
You can best achieve this by adding some olive oil, rapeseed oil and sesame oil to your salads. You can also replace skimmed milk with whole milk which will control hunger, and you will reduce your overall eating.
In most cases, low-fat dairy products are packed with sugar to compensate for the lack of fat.
They Even Encourage Fat Storage
There are times when crash diets fail to strike the required balance between carbohydrates, insulin and fat storage. Restricting calories leads to a drop in which causes hunger and binge on carbohydrates. This triggers insulin which promotes fat storage. The overall effect of this is more fat storage.
Some Real Tips for Weight Loss
It is clear that a crash diet is not the way to lose weight. Losing weight is all about lifestyle change and not the entire diet overall. To attain healthy long-term weight loss you will need to moderate your diets and increase physical exercise. Though this does not offer quick results, it is healthy and sustainable.
Here are tips that will help you achieve your weight loss goals:
- Limit eating excess food
- Aim to take three meals in a day and ensure that you do not skip any
- Avoid taking beverages that are full of calories and sugar additives
- To avoid overeating, take small portions of healthy snacks in your bag, not junk food.
- Use a food journal to monitor your eating habits and food intake
Want a Helping Hand for Weight Loss?
Now that we know that crash diets don’t work, you can begin a true, healthy weight loss journey. But where do you start? Knowing what not to do isn’t quite the same as knowing what to do.
But don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. If you’re looking for a helping hand to guide your weight loss, you might want to consider our Weight Loss Program. It’s a doctor-approved weight loss regimen that is safe, healthy, and sustainable.
If you want to return your body to its glory days, we’re here to help you meet your goals.