Fad Diets Don't Work

Fad Diets Don't Work

After many years of trying every new fad that came along, the Cabbage Soup Diet, the Grapefruit Diet, The Hollywood Diet, diet pills, and spa wraps, I'm here to tell you fad diets simply don't work. Why? The answer is actually very simple...fad diets are not natural.

The term fad diet describes the many diet approaches used to temporarily lose weight through unsafe and usually unrealistic methods. Quick fix programs simply do not work...although billions of dollars are spent each year. These quick weight loss plans offer a quick loss of weight but unfortunately the weight is gained right back because people return to their old eating habits and former life style.

There are many types of fad diets. Avoid those types of diets that recommend a certain nutrient, or combination of foods encouraging you to loss weight fast. Fad diet plans do not teach lifestyle or better eating habits for long-term weight management, and they do not help people attain the will power to exchange one lifestyle with another.

Diets that promote a very low calorie meal plan, approximately 1,000 to 1,500 calories per day and with no exercise program cause the body to become less efficient at burning fat, making it easier to store fat and regained weight each time a diet is stopped. In the long run this type of fad diets may make a person fatter instead of leaner. And, worse yet, these fad diets are not safe.

Only your weight and exercise level determines the number of calories right for your body. Your diet meal plan and healthy lifestyle habits will maintain long-term weight control. Healthy lifestyle habits include regular exercise, behavior modification, and a healthy, nutritious diet with a wide variety of foods. Beware of any diet that excludes any particular food group.

Everyone should be aware of any health problems before engaging in a diet program. All diets should include a warning to check with your physician before starting a diet. Also most fad diets make no mention of physical activity, in fact, they may brag that you can lose weight without exercise. Exercise and physical activities are essential in the process of weight loss and some of these diets can actually harm one’s health.

Most fad diets involve a 10 to 30 day period in which your diet is restricted to a select collection of bad-tasting, inconsistent health foods or recipes. Generally you'll lose water weight during this period as a reaction to the starvation process, so you will quickly lose weight. And, as you continue to starve yourself, your body starts working in order to keep up with the energy needs. But since you are not burning fats and as you typically avoid fats in this type of diet, your body will try to preserve the fat that it has in its store.

If you continue this diet up to a month your body will burn its stored fats having no other alternative to stay alive. Then you'll start getting weaker and not be able to feel well and perform your normal duties because it requires a lot more effort and time for the body to produce energy from fat rather than from muscle.

Usually by this time you'll go back to your normal eating habits but since it will take some time before the reconstruction of your muscle occurs during this time, the body stores most of the food intake as excess fats.

So now at the end of the reconstruction process, you're back to your initial weight and you'll gain back the weight you lost in the starvation process and little bit more.

A good diet meal plan includes the proper nutrition for a normally body so it should contain vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, as well as fats. An unbalanced diet may cause excessive reserves of body fat - defeating your purpose of dieting in the first place.

By using fad diets in your weight loss process your body will experience both starvation and weight gain in a short amount of time.

tag: fad diets