Crash Dieting

For those who aren’t aware what exactly crash dieting is, in summary it is limiting your food intake significantly in order to lose weight in a short period of time. The benefits of this form of diet this way are limited to nil. In more specific terms, the outline of what happens to your body during a crash diet goes as:

• Carbs in your muscles will first be used up-during the process, you might lose a few kilos via loss of fluids.
• Once these have been depleted, your body will move to the proteins in your muscle, significantly reducing your muscle mass. By this point of your crash dieting you won’t be feeling too great, headaches and agitation are common.
• Since this diet isn’t maintainable forever, you will eventually revert to your former food habits. Since your metabolism is so slow from your crash diet, the majority of calories coming into your body won’t be able to be processed fast enough, and in turn will store as excess fat on your body.

With more and more people desperate to lose that excess weight fast and with limited effort and exercise, crash dieting  seems to be a growing trend among western countries. Although there are varying opinions on the benefits or dangers of crash diets, one thing is clear: You’ll be lucky to find many nutritionists, specialists or doctors who recommend undertaking one.Visit this site on Weight Loss Reviews if you’re interested in recommended and efficient weight loss methods.

However, if an event coming up in your life involves impressing somebody or standing out among the crowd, the benefits of dieting this way may outweigh the medical or health risks associated for the short term.

The common banana crash diet consists of 4 glasses of milk and 4 pieces of fruit a day, which may very well help you lose weight but comes with another side-effect many people overlook: Malnutrition.

Another issue with crash diets is the fabled ‘yo-yo effect‘.

Yo Yo Effect

The energy your body needs, from everyday tasks to athletic endurance depends on your intake of calories. In order to match the low calorie diet you’re partaking during your crash dieting, your metabolism (which burns your calories) will slow down to suit your intake.

In the end, you can’t keep up this diet forever. When you eventually return to eating regularly, your calorie intake will skyrocket, and your metabolism will still be running slow - those pounds won’t take long to return. This is the crash diet yo-yo effect.

Simon is no stranger to the yo-yo effect. His experience with crash dieting could be described as not-too-pleasant.

After a year of depressing mood wings, intense cravings and lacking the energy to even get up and change the channel, he advocates against the side effects of crash diets.

Throughout highschool on holidays and after school, my friends and I would basically all follow the same path of life - sleeping in till 1pm, play video games all day with fast food inbetween.

It seemed to work great on their weight, they remained as skinny as ever-but I didn’t. Soon my girlfriend was commenting on my weight and making jokes, and even though I laughed at the time, it was cutting me on the inside. Browsing the net for a solution, I came across lots of pages which had the cure for quick and easy weight loss: crash dieting. I love my mum’s cabbage soup, so when I came across one of these diets which was based around it, my heart rose.

For the first few days, I was feeling pretty great. I swore I could see changes in my waist already, whether or not it was reality or I was just excited. My family and friends were fairly confused, and I’d just make excuses like ‘I’m not too that hungry’ while sipping away at my soup.

Come next week, the headaches came. I became so irritated and pissed off at even the slightest nuisances, my mum thought I should go see a doctor. He didn’t seem too caring about my diet, and recommended vitamin pills, which I began taking after. No change.

A month later, I had dropped from 92 to 72 kilos: Finally, I thought, I’ve lost what I want. I returned to my old life-style with my friends, but tried to fit in a run every day or so too. Soon enough, I rose to 78 kilos again. Then 82…then 83…..then 87. I became so incredibly depressed about it, I went down to a diet coke, and maybe an egg or an apple a day.

Like the first time, the more weight lost, the more happiness faded away. I would go in cycles like this for the next 10 months, until a personal trainer finally smacked some sense in to me. Now under his guidance and nutrionary recommendations, I’m finally getting somewhere. My gained fat is slowly melting and what little muscle mass I had is returning.

Simon isn’t the only one who got trapped in a crash diet - many others who fall for magazine fads are caught in the vicious cycle aswell. Some other concepts people have believed include:

Crash Dieting Myths

• “I’ve been told that this diet would suit my blood type”

There is no justified evidence that proves that any sort of food is more appropriate for particular blood types than others.

• “This detox diet claims that it will rid the impurities from my body”

Instead of believing this generalisation, ask a specialist what these ‘impurities’ are. Often originators of these diets use the term loosely.

• “It works perfectly: The less fat and calories I ingestmore weight I’ll lose”

Only the half-truth: Yes, you will lose weight from less calories you intake, but as soon as you get off the diet, your metabolism will be so slow that you will most likely gain all your weight back”.

• “All the foods in this diet provide me with all the nutrients and minerals I need”

Be very sure with yourself: Ask a nutritionist or doctor to approve. The cabbage soup crash diet and banana crash diet, although relatively nutritious, aren’t valuable enough to maintain your health.

• “I’m doing the apple patch diet“

Steer clear of anything ridiculous as fads like these, no matter how long the infommercial is, or how many testimonials the company has. Have common sense.

• “Carbohydrates and proteins shouldn’t be taken together, I’ll benefit more taking them seperately”

Once again, diets like these only draw in people through hype. Unless it’s proven by scientific research or a fitness/health specialist, don’t believe anything different to what you already thought.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 12:31 am and is filed under Crash Dieting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.