It never seems to fail! Every month, a bazillion new fad diets are started to sell a book, seminar or food product. Every month, a mega-bazillion people risk their health, even their lives, for the fast and easy way to look like the latest super-model. You may even lose weight, but fad diets can have serious side effects. Of course, you should consult your doctor about any diet program, but this article will review some of the effects of the fad diet and suggest an alternative.
The Fad Diet-Lose Weight Fast And Easy: It kind of makes sense to stay away from anything that claims to be fast and easy. Fast and easy diet claims are especially dangerous. While researching weight loss on the Internet, I found hundreds of different fast and easy diet plans, from a vinegar diet, to fasting, to all liquids. I don’t have to tell you. If you’re reading this, you probably saw all those and are hoping this article will give you something new. Instead of the new fast and easy fad methods, we’re going to suggest a boring, old, slow and hard method that’s safe, healthy and permanent. That’s because, even the best fad methods place serious starvation stress on the body.
Starvation Effects: Many people wonder why they can’t just stop eating or take some other drastic action, like eating only carrots to get the pain of dieting over quickly. Even the nutrient-rich liquids and other, more reputable fads put the body under the effects of starvation, causing serious stress to the system. Unless the weight loss is gradual and the nutrients are balanced, all kinds of negative health effects can come from dieting starvation. Low carbohydrate diets can put too many of the wrong kinds of fats into our bodies. Low protein, vegetarian diets can lead to muscle wasting. All of the rapid weight loss programs carry significant risk. If someone is saying you can safely lose more than 2 pounds per week, take the program to your doctor before committing. The fads seem to always have the before and after pictures and success stories, but no one wants to hear from those who didn’t succeed, or worse, got sick following the diet program.
Heart Attack, Stroke And Coma: Fortunately, the seriously dangerous diet programs get shut down quickly. Unfortunately, for every one that’s shut down it seems a dozen start up. Dieting is serious business. People diet because they have over-indulged in the eating arena. Often, they want a fast remedy, so they can get back to over-indulgence. Fad diets are almost always fast programs that alter our nutritional balance. Many programs have caused illness and death from heart attack, stroke, hypoglycemic coma, anorexia nervosa, etc. We can’t have all the cake we want and a trim figure, too. When it comes to eating, if we try to get it all we risk losing it all.
Gain Weight Fast: Let’s talk about what happens if we succeed in our weight goals using a fad diet. Now, after months of denying ourselves, we have to find some way to live our thinner lives without a permanent diet plan. Fad diets…even the recently popular and successful low carb plans show a very rapid weight gain by those transitioning from the diets. We can’t go back to normal eating because that’s what made us fat, but no one has taught us how to do anything but go on a weight loss diet. The weight loss and gain roller coaster keeps our bodies in a perpetual state of stress, which, incidentally, increases our appetites. There has to be a more sensible approach.
Using Common Sense: The sensible approach is what we were taught since elementary school. We can lose weight by following a healthy eating plan. It’s the well-balanced diet your doctor has been telling you about since you’ve had a doctor. I wish I hadn’t waited until I was 100 pounds overweight and had diabetes before I caught on to this plan. Yes, it’s old and boring! Nobody’s going to like you when you tell them you lost the weight by the “eating right” diet. Yes, it’s slow! It could take you 3-4 times the fad diet schedule, to reach your ideal weight. Here’s some good news about eating right to lose weight: It’s the safest method! It’s permanent! That’s right! You never have to be on a weight loss diet again, because what you did to lose the weight is what you continue to do to maintain it.
So, we can stay on the dangerous fad diet roller coaster, or we can eliminate fad diets entirely by eating a well-balanced diet all the time.
Glen Williams is Webmaster for http://www.e-health-fitness.com, founder and CEO of EHF, Inc. He has done extensive research on personal and family health and fitness issues and has been helping and advising people on health since 1987. You can comment on his articles at Health And Fitness Forums.
