Atkins, South Beach, low-carb, The Zone. The list of fad diets could go on forever. However, while that list continues to grow, the health of Americans continues to worsen.
Fad diets are ineffective and harmful to a person’s health. Most require you to eat only one type of food. In doing this, you are depriving your body of vital nutrients and minerals found in those foods excluded from the diet.
For example, when you subscribe to the Atkins diet you are to eliminate foods with white flour, sugar and high carbohydrates. In doing so, many dieters started eating large amounts of meat, butter and eggs.
However, I find it hard to believe that a diet filled with steaks and hamburgers is exactly good for me. In fact, an official condemnation of the Atkins Diet was made by the American Medical Association stating, “a careful scientific appraisal was carried out by several council and staff members and it became apparent that the Atkins diet as recommended poses a serious threat to health.”
Now if the American Medical Association is saying the Atkins diet poses a serious threat to a person’s health, it is inconceivable why anyone would continue to follow such a diet.
However, it is not just the Atkins diet that is unhealthy for human beings. The aforementioned diets are also not nutritionally sound. A person may lose weight quickly, but the rebound once the dieter stops watching what is eaten can be even worse than the original state.
According to quakeroatmeal.com, the weight lost on these fad diets is usually water weight. People are deceived into thinking fat is falling off when really the body is merely shedding excess water. Furthermore, the weight lost may include some muscle loss. Again, this is definitely not fat loss.
In fact, the main reason some scales may show a much lower number is because when dieters stop eating normal, balanced diets their muscles lose their strength and have to be used to keep the body going with energy.
What many people fail to realize is that muscle weighs more than fat. Thus, when the number on the scale does not go down as quickly as desired, it is not necessarily because you are doing something wrong or not losing fat. What may be happening is even greater, the fat may be turned into muscle, which weighs more but can be toned to look great.
Not everyone’s bodies respond to diet changes in the same fashion. One person may be able to eliminate carbohydrates from his or her diet and be perfectly fine.
On the other hand, another person may take the same steps and end up in the hospital because of the danger they put their body in. Though the fine print does say to contact a physician before beginning any diet, many people fail to do so. They dive right into the diet and place themselves in immediate danger.
Instead of embarking on ludicrous fad diets, people should instead watch what they eat by keeping a food journal. Try eating balanced meals that incorporate items from all the food groups. What parents tell their children when they are young is indeed the truth. Fruits and vegetables are good for you and should be eaten on a regular basis.
By exercising consistently and watching what is consumed, the weight will fall off. The more even the distribution of weight loss, the easier it will be to keep it off. A proper diet places long-term health before immediate results. Fad diets do just the opposite because long term use could create health problems. Therefore, if you’d like to live long steer clear of these yo-yo diets.