If you need to lose some weight, forget about the fad diets because they don't work in the long run. Fad diets may result in rapid weight loss, but the quick fix diets usually do not produce permanent results. Most of the time, the dieters return to their old eating habits and lifestyles and regain the weight.
Although people spend a great deal of money on them each year, fad diets are not necessarily balanced or healthy. Some may recommend a certain nutrient or food combination that purports to create rapid weight loss. While the diet may result in rapid weight loss over the short term, the positive effects do not last because the fad dieter has not learned lifestyle habits that address long term weight management.
A problem with many rapid weight loss diets is that the weight loss is usually water loss. Many of these diets do not promote exercise.
Some diets promote a low calorie intake for quick weight loss. Unfortunately, even if the dieter is starving himself or herself half to death with 1,000 calories or less, he or she is training the body to gain weight if an exercise program is not followed. There may be a quick loss of a few pounds following the low calorie intake diet, but the long term effect is that the dieter will eventually become fatter. This is because the body has become less efficient at burning fat. Due to low calories and minimal activity, the body is trained to store fat.
What happens, particularly if you avoid eating any fat whatsoever while starving yourself, is that your body will actually begin to store any fat it can get a hold of as an energy reserve. By forcing yourself to continue starving, your body will eventually begin burning its fat reserves. At this stage, however, you will be feeling lethargic and drained because it is difficult for your body to produce energy from fat. While from a rapid weight loss perspective this idea sounds okay at first, once you are off the diet, you'll probably gain all your weight back and then some because your body is confused into thinking it needs to store fat again instead of burning the fat with exercise.
Calories are energy units. They are provided by food and burned by activity. Your caloric intake should be determined by your height, weight, gender and level of activity (including exercise). These factors all have to do with how much energy you require in the form of food. Your food should have nutritional value and not a bunch of "empty calories." A healthy diet will include a wide variety of nutritious and natural foods. The diet should contain vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates and fats.
Obesity is a big problem in the United States and becoming a problem worldwide. There may be health issues associated with your weight that should be discussed with your doctor. Your doctor should approve any diet and exercise regime so that you are not starving yourself, confusing your body's fat storage mechanism, and making yourself ill.
A healthy diet plan will focus on long term weight management instead of short term weight loss. Although you might not see the effects of your diet plan immediately, you will see effects over time ... and they will be lasting effects.
Urbain C. Beck is a freelance writer who enjoys writing about health and medical issues. Some of Urbain's health related articles can be found at http://www.blurbosphere.com/wellness. | |
