Fad Diets and Why They Don’t Stay

Fad diets are well known for their promise of bringing some instant weight loss. However, while these diets may help you lose weight quick, they may also create health issues.

Here is some helpful fad diet advice:

1. It’s not recommended to do such a diet for more then 3 to 7 days, because they are unbalanced and are not meant to be a permanent way of eating.

2. While keeping the fad diet, do not overexert yourself, even if you feel fine during that time; the fad diet can become stressful on your body and overexerting can result in some major health issues.

3. You can often get very hungry at times, try drinking water to help manage hunger pains

4. After finishing the fad diet, don’t start celebrating the end of dieting with food, otherwise all that effort will be in vain. Instead, focus on a balanced diet once you are done with the fad diet.

However, wouldn’t it make much more sense to focus on a long-term balanced diet and weight loss plan rather than risk your health?

Nutrition experts advise to permanently adopt healthy eating, rather than going on crash diets in order to loose weight quickly. Eating a balanced diet that consists of a wide variety of foods can make all the difference and it is the first principle of good and healthy nutrition. After a few weeks of fad diets, that usually consists of only one main food or type of food, you may find yourself developing nutritional deficiencies because no “one” food has all the ingredients the body needs. In other words, there are no “super-foods” that you should “only” eat.

Another problem with fad dieting is that they violate a very important principle of nutrition…eating must be enjoyable. Fad diets tend to be so boring that almost no one can stay on them for too long without enormous amounts of sacrifices. Rather than going on a fad diet, you should consider that a daily 30 minute walk makes more sense than almost any fad diet. This helps you maintain your weight loss over a long period of time, and when combined with a good and healthy diet, will speed up the weight loss process.

The simple fact is the only way to lose weight and still be healthy is to eat less and maintain daily physical activity. With fresh fruits and vegetables, fat-free or low-fat dairy, broiled meat, no fried food, and some daily physical exercise, you will find out that losing weight is pretty easy and best of all is healthy.

Fad diets are everywhere. Anyone can try them, but remember, fad diets are usually made for the short-run, they are not designed to become a way of life, and that’s why you should think twice before continuing, or even starting a fad diet. Read More..

Why fad diets don’t work!

The answer is simple...fad diets are not natural.

Fad diet is the term that describes an array of diet approaches used to temporarily lose weight through unsafe and unrealistic methods. Quick fix programs do not work...although millions of dollars are spent each year. These programs offer a quick loss of weight but sadly the weight is gained right back because people return to their old eating habits and old life style.

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

Diets promoting a very low calorie system, 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 fad diets makes a person fatter instead of leaner. Ultimately these fad diets are not safe.

Only your weight and exercise level determines the number of calories that is right for your diet program and only 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.

People should be aware of their health problems before engaging in a diet program. All diets should include a warning to check with a specialist before trying a diet. Also most fad diets make no mention of physical activity, which is essential in the process of weight loss and some of these diets can actually harm one’s health.

The majority of fad diets involve a 10 day to 1 month period in which your diet is restricted to a select collection of bad-tasting, inconsistent health foods or recipes. The fads diet is generally advising you to completely avoided fats.

Due to water loss from this period, as a reaction to the starvation process, you will quickly lose weight. And, as you continue to starve, your body starts working in order to keep up with the energy needs. But you are still not burning fats and as you avoid fats in your diet, your body will try to preserve the fat that it has in its store. And if you continue your diet up to a month your body will burn its stored fats having no other alternative to stay alive.

After this period the dieter starts getting weaker and he is not able to feel well and perform its normal duties because it requires a lot more effort and time for the body to produce energy from fat rather than from muscle.
At a certain time the dieter is back to his normal eating habit but it will take some time before the reconstruction of your muscle occurs and during this time, the body stores most of the food intake as excess fats. Therefore at the end of the reconstruction process, the dieter is back to his initial weight gaining back the weight he lost in the starvation process and little bit more.

A diet regards the proper nutrition for a normally developed human and it should contain vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates AND fats. An imbalanced process may cause starvation or excessive reserves of body fat.

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

Fad Diets can Kill!

Everything you read about diets should be "taken with a grain of salt". If something seems too good to be true, or
not plausible, seek other sources, or ask at
http://mayoclinic.com.

You probably have heard about "anorexia", self-starvation, or "bulimia", binge eating followed by laxatives and/or induced vomiting. These disorders often affect females with poor self image. Death can result.

You might not realize that some fad diets are also deadly to health or to life. Any diet that focuses on just a few foods, or mostly water or juices, except under personal medical supervision, can damage critical organs and nerve tissues beyond repair. Don't willfully make yourself into
a starvation victim.

Be cautious when reading about such things as "macrobiotic" diets. "Macrobiotic" is a combination of two words, created to mean great / long life achieved through diet of whole grains, vegetables, beans, limited quantities of animal foods. Some fanatics have taken this to mean nothing but grains and water. The "brown rice diet" is an example that has caused deaths.

Don't expect "the grapefruit diet" to do much more than supply you with a lot of vitamin C. You had better continue
eating proteins, fruits, vegetables, fiber foods.

As I wrote in my diet eBook, If calories burned are more / less than calories ingested, weight will be lost / gained. Physics can NOT be turned off.

By the way, as you can read on their web site, posted August 22, 2003,
"Mayo Clinic diet: It doesn't exist.
A number of so-called "Mayo Clinic diets" have surfaced over the years. None of these originated at or are endorsed by Mayo Clinic."

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Fad Diets

High-Fat, Low-Carbohydrate Diets - Millions of Americans have joined the low-carb craze and started high-fat, low-carb diets such as the Atkins Diet, and the Zone Diet. They are made up of about 60% fat, 10% carbohydrate, and 30% protein. These diets say you can eat high amounts of fat and protein while getting very low amounts of carbohydrates in the form of vegetables. The main premise of the low-carb diet is that a diet low in carbohydrates leads to a reduction in bodyÕs production of insulin. The end result is that fat and protein stores will be used for energy. So you stuff yourself full of unlimited amounts of meat, cheese, and butter, and only eat a small portion of carbohydrates.

People who start the diet usually lose a great amount of weight, but itÕs not permanent weight loss. Instead of burning fat, the lose water and precious muscle tissue. Furthermore, these diets are low in several nutrients and contain excess amounts of cholesterol and saturated fats, substances that increase the risk of heart disease. Plus, regardless of what they claim, the enormous amounts of protein put a strain on your kidneys.

Moderate Fat Diets - Next, there are the moderate fat diets. Moderate fat diets include diets like Weight Watchers, the USDA Food Guide Pyramid, and Jenny Craig. These diets are made up of about 25% fat, 60% carbohydrate, and 15% protein. They encourage the intake of whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and essential fatty acids found in foods like olive oil and salmon. These diets are usually nutritionally balanced if the dieter eats a variety of foods from all categories. For example, Weight Watchers operates on a point system where foods get a number of points based on calorie, fiber, and fat content. Dieters get a specific amount of points they can use for the day. While itÕs not encouraged, they may choose to spend most of their points on carbohydrates instead of balancing it out. This could lead to deficiencies in nutrients such as calcium, iron, and zinc. However, if followed properly, these diets are probably the most successful for losing weight and keeping it off.

Low and Very Low-Fat Diets - Finally, you have your low-fat and very low-fat diets. Diets in this category include the Dr. Dean OrnishÕs Diet and the Pritkin Plan, among others. They are made up of about 13% fat, 70% carbohydrates, and 16% protein. These diets are mostly vegetarian diets and donÕt recommend eating a lot of meat. Like the low-carb diets, you can eat unlimited amounts of certain foods. Because you canÕt eat a lot of meat, these diets are deficient in zinc, vitamin B12, and essential fatty acids. Also, it is so restrictive that people find a hard time staying on it for life and end up gaining their weight back.

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