Fad Diets - What Is Wrong With Them?
If you do a fad diet and it helps you lose weight fast and get results, what can be wrong with that?
Surely you have seen many ads on the internet and in magazines that say that you can get a huge weight loss in only a few days time.
Is this type of weight loss really possible? Yes - but… in almost every instance the weight loss from a fad diet is temporary and usually due to loss of water weight. Our bodies are made up of a large percentage of water so as soon as your body rehydrates itself you will put that quick weight loss right back on.
What are some of the reasons a fad diet is not good for you?
1. A fad diet usually tells you to focus on a single food type and avoid all others. This means you miss out on the nutrition you really need and can get from a more balanced diet approach.
Quite often these fad diets will even tell you to take vitamins and supplements to make up for all the nutritional deficiencies you experience while on that fad diet. However, your body will not be able to absorb the nutrients from the recommended supplements unless you take them with food. And many of the foods that help you absorb nutrients are banned on fad diets.
2. Fad diets are usually so restrictive and unappetizing that after as little as one day you will begin having overwhelming cravings for other foods and most likely you will not be able to complete the fad diet. This quitting will also wreak havoc on your self esteem as you may beat yourself up for not having enough willpower to stick it out with the diet.
3. Fad diets are temporary solutions to your weight problems. Even if you do follow through to the end with a fad diet you have not made permanent healthy changes to the way you handle food in your life. So fad dieters tend to be yo-yo dieters that go back and forth between extreme lo-calorie fad diets to periods of bingeing on food groups that were missing from the fad diet. So fad dieters are on a roller coaster of gaining and losing the same darn pounds again and again.
No matter what you see in the media about quick weight loss fad diets, realize that these diets will never work long term.
The best way to lose weight and sustain that weight loss (so you never have to diet again) is to eat a variety of healthy foods, avoid overeating, and do regular exercise. This simple formula works every time.
Complements for Health, owned by Andrea Paduchak PT,LMT is a provider of massage therapy, prenatal massage, and integrative therapy in Nashua, NH. Visit us at www.complementsforhealth.com. This article can be reprinted as long as this resouce box remains as is and intact.
