In the hope of losing weight fast, you may fall prey to the empty promises made by crash diets. However, by severely restricting the food you eat, these diets turn out to be one of the most detrimental things you can do to your overall health.
These diets are not healthy in the long-term as they not only cause malnutrition, but do not teach the dietary changes that have to be maintained for a long time. To top it all, they also considerably reduce your body metabolism and make it difficult for you to lose fat o even maintain weight when you are done.
Crash diets seem to be effective for help at losing weight as they claim to give you fantastic results. However, don’t be misled by all this as if you do, you will only set yourself up for problems. To help you pick your right and healthy diet plan and not crash diets, here are some tips to look out for.
1. Crash diets give you fewer than 1200 calories per day, which is the absolute minimum number of calories that most women should eat every day. Men should ideally consume 1500 calories or more every day.
2. These diets use weird food counting and combing rules. Remember that any diet comprising of more rules than you can follow should be avoided. Instead, focus your energy on developing healthy habits instead of trying to grasp abstract systems.
3. Crash diets usually focus on only one or two food groups, which is not healthy. You should never cut food groups out as your body requires all these macronutrients (proteins, fats and carbs) for proper functioning.
4. They instruct you to use various supplements. As supplements cannot compensate for whole foods, avoid those diets that convert your pantry into a pharmacy.
5. These diets are low in protein which is not healthy as your diet should typically include a lean source of protein in all the meals and snacks you consume.
6. Crash diets are very rigid. As a diet has to blend with your lifestyle, if you find it difficult sticking to it, you will never be successful.
7. Crash diets usually advise not to exercise. Diets that do not provide sufficient energy to stay active do not adopt a healthy approach to eating or to losing weight.
8. These diets use meal replacement shakes. Though they are good on occasions, they should not replace meals everyday.
9. They advise you to eat only pre-made meals. Instead of these meals, you need a diet that teaches you to eat right everyday so that you can maintain your target weight for your lifetime.
10. They don’t include lots of fruits and vegetables, the most nutrient-dense foods available. However, no diet should exclude them.
No matter how desperate you are to lose weight as quickly as possible, avoid crash diets. They don’t give you the success you are looking for, and are not in a sustainable fashion. Moreover, severe diets make you regain all the weight you lose and end after some time.
Instead, follow a more moderate diet approach with wholesome nutrition and sufficient energy to go through the day. The diet should also have guidelines and meals you can stick to and you soon see better results, can enjoy the process better and once you reach your ideal weight, you stay there.
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