You found out about a new diet which promises a Hollywood star body and you want to try it? Are you sure it is good for you? Eating is one of the greatest things in life. We eat because we are stressed, because we like something or when we want to celebrate so this way we end up eating also when we are not hungry. So do we need strict diets? No we don’t because studies say that approximately 6% of people who start a diet manage to lose weight and maintain that way for more time. That’s such a small number and you thought that all those girls you know managed to lose weight with a popular diet. Well they probably have now other health problems.
What should we do? We have to make long lasting little changes like: more exercise, more walking and leaving the car at home, stop eating when we are not hungry, etc. Strict diets never help because you don’t make all the healthy changes at once, you either eat a few calories, make too much exercise, or both but these things are unproductive on long term because you can develop heart diseases or other dangerous illnesses. Also when you lose weight you will get back to your old habits and eat a lot of bad things so your body will be overwhelmed by the amount of calories and make large fat deposits; not only you will gain weight but you will gain more weight than you lost. Now we will discuss about all the disadvantages that some popular diets have.
Reducing Calories Intake
This diet is based on reducing calories intake and having a balanced meal composed of 40%- 50% carbohydrates, 15%- 20% proteins and 30% fats. The disadvantages are:
- you have to know how much calories all the food that you eat has and keep track of how many calories you eat so this might be very hard for a busy person;
- Reducing your caloric intake with more than 500 calories can create lots of unwanted effects: fatigue, hunger, nausea, headaches. When your body adapts to the new caloric intake these will disappear but you will reach a plateau and stop losing any weight for a lot of time.
Eliminating Carbohydrates
The famous Atkins diet and other which are based on the same principles of eliminating carbohydrates from our meals can be pretty tricky after a while. Studies show that in one year Atkins diet has the same results as a diet which is based on reducing calories. The side effects you can expect from Atkins diet are:
- Constipation- by reducing carbohydrates you also reduce fibers which assure a good colon function;
- Bad breath can be very disturbing when your fat intake excels your protein intake;
- Excess proteins can also damage your kidneys and the body’s function to eliminate toxic chemicals;
- A lot of animal fat in our meals can lead to high cholesterol and high triglycerides in the blood;
Eliminating Fats
This diet is praised by many people but if you eliminate all the fat from your meals you will develop serious health issues. If your body lacks fat your blood will have problems coagulating, you will get bruises from almost anything and your skin will get dry. You need a minimum amount of fat per day to assure that your body will function well.
Diets Based On Liquids
Liquid food has a low amount of calories, between 500 to 800 calories a day, so you will think that you will lose pounds fast if you follow such a diet. Unfortunately is not that easy: a diet this type cannot be followed without strict medical supervision. These diets are the worst because they lack antioxidants and fibers and you will soon start feeling very tired and very hungry. Another thing is that if your food habits were bad before following this diet you will probably gain weight afterwards because it will not change they way you eat.
Cabbage Soup
Whenever I think about this diet I remember eating that depressing soup with that awful taste. You have to be a true masochist if you decide to eat that for seven days. There are different variants of the cabbage soup diet: in one of them you are allowed to eat fruits or vegetables. After a few days the only thing you can do is to just stay in bed and sleep; it takes all your energy and when you stop it, guess what happens: you pounds will come as fast as they disappeared.
Diets Based On Fruits
People always say good things about fruits: they are healthy, full of vitamins, sweet and tasty. Be careful! Most diets based on fruits don’t have any fats or proteins and you cannot live without fats and proteins because your hair will fall, your nails will get weak and you will look pale and get depressed easily. So diets which include fruits are healthy but as long as you don’t eat only fruits. Yes, they contain lots of vitamins but to assure a proper body function you will need other nutrients.
The 3-3-3/1-1-1 Diet
The 3-3-3 diet is not as bad as the 1-1-1 but they both do almost the same damage to your body as the diets above. “What is the 3-3-3 diet?” you ask. 3-3-3 means eating the same nutrient for 3 days. Example: 3 days you eat meat, then for three days you eat fruits and the other three days you eat vegetables or dairy products. You might think “Wow eating as much as I want and losing weight is great” but you are wrong. After the first day you will hate meat or fruits or whatever you chose to eat, then in the next day you will feel extreme tiredness and coldness. When you eat only meat you will probably get constipated and when you eat fruits you will get diarrhea; just think about the effect these changes will have on your colon and stomach. If you don’t die after following this diet for a few months you are a very lucky person but of course when you finish you will start gaining weight fast.
My advice is to follow a diet which is not very extreme but balanced; balance is the key to everything. If your diet will contain healthy proteins, fats and carbohydrates, you will lose weight and feel excellent. If you cut one of those important nutrients your body will stop functioning normally so along with your surplus pound you will get other problems which can make more damage than your weight problems.
You shouldn’t think of following a diet at all, you must make changes to your lifestyle and eat healthy for the rest of your life. Most people think: yeah but now I am big and I eat a lot, when I will lose weight I will eat less. That is completely untrue; it’s all about your metabolism. A lot of people who are slim eat a lot of food and a lot of people who are fat eat less but lose no weight so is not about how much you eat is about how you eat and how much you exercise. Forget about those no good diets and grab a bodybuilding diet cookbook with healthy recipes; you will learn how to cook and eat healthy food without craving for the things you aren’t allowed to eat. By the way, one candy won’t kill you so losing weight begins when you stop after you had one candy or one piece of something “forbidden”.
