When it comes to weight loss or weight gain, an important thing that always comes into play is diet. Without the help of diets, one cannot expect to shed a few pounds or gain some. However, in some cases, you might be recommended to follow certain diets that are backed with no logic or evidence. In such cases, your body is more vulnerable to harm as compared to gaining benefits.
Generally, referred to as ‘Fad diets’, magazines, TV commercials, and advertisements could be seen promoting such plans all over the world. Therefore, if you are dreaming of achieving the perfect body, such things might seem tempting. However, most of these fad diets are something you should never be trying. While the benefits may exist for a while, in the end, it could be detrimental to your health. Therefore, let us discuss why you should be avoiding fad diets.
Nothing But A Lie
The first and foremost thing about fad diets is that it is nothing but a lie. Without any scientific backing, no one can provide its significance or benefits. When it comes to diets, it is recommended to carry out thorough research and find out whether it will suit your body or not. A particular diet plan doesn’t need to suit everyone else. The human body thinks and reacts differently.
Moreover, metabolism and digestion rates vary as well. Therefore, there is a reason such diets are called ‘fad’ because they are simply made up and are not backed by authentic authorities. For instance, many even today consume coconut oil, as they believe that it helps with kidney problems, increasing metabolism, diabetes, and cancer, etc. However, these claims are not backed by thorough scientific research. In fact, it was found to have a negative influence on cholesterol.
Weight Gain
With fad diets, it is usually claimed that they will help you lose weight quickly without having to put in too much effort from your side. Meanwhile, it may sound tempting but at the same time is suspicious as well. Fitness and health experts always recommend making changes to your lifestyle in order to lose weight. If they were also off the same opinion, why wouldn’t they suggest the same?
There is a good reason behind that. Fitness and health experts know that losing weight is neither an easy task nor quick. If you were to follow fad diets, you will lose weight quickly but that weight would only be water weight. Therefore, if you were to stop the diet tomorrow and continue with normal living, chances are that you will gain weight even more quickly this time in addition to a few more pounds.
Leads to Deficiency
The biggest argument against fad diets is that they are unbalanced. Then again, as already mentioned, in order to lose weight and to live a healthy life, one must always consume balanced diets. The problem with fad diets is that most of them focus on cutting whole food groups that contain essential nutrients, beneficial for the body. In their absence, the body could become nutrition deficient.
For instance, if you were to discuss alkaline diets that mainly focus on removing every type of food except vegetables, fruits, nuts, and pulses, you are reducing the intake of iron, proteins, calcium, magnesium, and other important nutrients. Such deficiencies could lead to bowel problems in addition to anemia and osteoporosis.
Similarly, if you were to only consume fresh juices, your body will not receive healthy fats and fibers. Therefore, it is important that your body always receives a balance of everything. Restricting your diets will strip your body of other essential vitamins and nutrients needed for it to function normally.
Muscle & Hair Loss
Since you are compromising your health by consuming fad diets, do not be surprised if you start to lose both muscle and hair in the future. Both muscles and hair require a good amount of proteins for them to stay healthy. Furthermore, your muscles require proteins to grow and repair as well. If your body is not receiving enough proteins, you will start to lose your hair due to decreasing health.
As a result, hair fall and breakage will occur. And, since fad diets do not contain enough calories, muscle mass is evident as well. If your body does not receive enough calories from diets, it will look for other ways to get energy. As a result, it will start digesting your muscles. Therefore, with muscle loss at one hand and hair loss on the other, considering fad diets could really be a bad idea.
Fad Means Unnecessary
Fad diets are unnecessary. You could follow a Mediterranean style diet and it would help prevent diabetes, heart disease, and even certain cancer types. This is because the Mediterranean style diet consists of all food items important for your body, in other words, balanced. It focuses on the intake of regular healthy food items by replacing them with unhealthy ones.
As a result, you are allowed to consume pulses, beans, all types of fruits, and vegetables to keep yourself physically active. Although, you are not destined to achieve it overnight but maintaining a balanced healthy diet will provide significant benefits in the long run.
Fad Diets Could Cause Obsession
It is often that we see certain people in our family and amongst friends, who are very obsessed with their diets. Although, being considerate and thoughtful about your meals is a wise choice but becoming over-obsessed could be harmful. One of the reasons, fad diets are not preferred is because they could make someone over obsessive about their intake.
As a result, the excessively obsessed individual will eat far less than normally required. If continued for long, it becomes a mindset. In pursuit of losing weight, people become skinny. For them, it is the new normal and healthy weight. In reality, it is the exact opposite and does not prove to be beneficial.
You Will Become Tired Quickly
Fad diets are normally based around reducing the intake of calories. However, calories are what your body needs to keep you active. It is its primary source of energy. Therefore, if you happen to be fasting or eating less than what is required, you are bound to become tired quickly. In addition to that, you will feel fatigued throughout the day and laziness will prevail. Therefore, instead of consuming fad diets, it is suggested that smaller meals should be eaten throughout the day, which will help you boost metabolism and provide sufficient energy to carry yourself throughout the day.
Final Word
Concluding, one could say that fad diets are bound to cause more harm than good. With fad diets, you are always compromising on something, particularly physical health. It is a well-known fact that your body needs time to adjust to changes in lifestyle, especially diets. If you were to get straight down with fasting and dramatic weight loss techniques, you will be giving up on healthy nutrients and that is a tradeoff you cannot afford. Therefore, instead of focusing on fad diets, consider developing healthy eating habits that help you maintain both physical and mental health.