At this time of year, chances are good that you have been bombarded with ads or suggestions for different fad diets. It’s the time of year that many people have made a resolution to lose weight, and advertisers know their target audience. But before you rush out to the store to purchase 30 pounds of pineapple or 12 different bottles of vitamins, check out the following three reasons to avoid fad diets.
Fad diets are only a short-term fix. Most work by severely restricting your calories, to the point that you experience annoying symptoms like headaches, dizziness, fatigue and even anger spells. You might lose a few pounds, but eventually your feel so terrible that your willpower disappears. You end up binge-eating at midnight and wake up the next morning filled with regret (and pizza, probably).
At best, your metabolism is wrecked, you quickly regain the weight, and you start all over with another fad diet. At worst, yo-yo dieting can lead to long-term health conditions such as high cholesterol and blood pressure.
You will deprive yourself of nutrients. There is no way that a diet of nothing but cabbage can supply your body with all of the nutrients it needs to function correctly. Very low-calorie diets can lead to nutrient deficiency, and the whole point of losing weight was to get healthier!
You will only do more damage to your relationship with food. Many people who become overweight have an unhealthy relationship with food. They view food as a reward, and withdrawal of food as a punishment. Consequently, whenever they want to feel better or relieve stress, they run to their number one reward. Sound familiar?
Unfortunately, fad diets only encourage the mindset of punishing yourself to get healthy. The key to long-lasting, healthy weight loss is to change your relationship with food. When you learn to eat a healthy, balanced diet and consume the right amount of calories and nutrients, you can retrain your brain. You will learn to eat to live, rather than living to eat. If you want to lose the weight and actually keep it off, ditch the fad diets and make real, permanent changes to your mindset and lifestyle.
