Crash Dieting – Why It Doesn’t Work

October 11, 2009

fad_diets Are you determined to lose 10 pounds fast? Do you turn towards crash dieting. Perhaps your plan calls for nothing but grapefruit or cabbage soup each day. You slash your daily calories to fewer than 1,000 — and sure enough, the pounds melt away. But when you eat so few calories, you train your metabolism to slow down. Once the diet is over, you have a body that burns calories more slowly — and gains weight more quickly — than ever before.

Humans are mammals and crash dieting forces our metabolism into survival mode. You can compare the slowed metabolic rate to a bear going into hibernation for the winter. The hibernation is a state of inactivity and metabolic depression in animals, characterized by lower body temperature, slower breathing, and lower metabolic rate. Hibernating animals conserve energy, especially during winter when food is short, tapping energy reserves, body fat, at a slow rate.

For those of you who are really determined to crash diet – this next section is for you:

Don’t do a crash diet for more than 3 to 7 days. Most of these diets are not meant to be kept for extended periods of time. They aren’t balanced and not meant to be your permanent way of eating. Now the Atkins diet says you can keep it for extended periods of time, I don’t think it a good idea, but the diet changes once you get passed the first two weeks, so if you want to do that extended version of the diet, look it up and get more details on it.
The week that your going to keep the fad diet, don’t overexert yourself. While feeling fine during the diet, you shouldn’t try to exert yourself too much, it would make it difficult to keep it and may be too stressful on your system.
Don’t go out to dinner with friends and other social activities. Nothing is worst then eating something tiny when your friends are eating their heads off. So, while it can be done, it’s easier to just avoid those types of situations.
If you get very hungry drink a cold glass of water, it will help to take away the hunger pangs. You could always try sucking on ice to calm hunger pains.
One last thing, once the crash diet ends don’t think it’s party time and eat out the house…once the diet is over you want to celebrate, just don’t celebrate it with food! Start your well balanced diet once you are done with the fad diet.