Dangers of Fad Dieting
Almost everywhere you turn, fad diets are appearing (Keto, South Beach, Zone, Paleo, Mediterranean, Liquid Diets). They often deliver results, but at what cost? Is there a healthier but still effective option?
You’re joining your friend for lunch. She looks great. She’s shed the extra twenty pounds that she’s been carrying since college, and she’s dressed in a slinky black outfit that makes you a bit envious. When you question her about it, she tells you she’s been on the Keto diet. She proceeds to recount how she ate a pile of bacon for breakfast, and some pork rinds for a midmorning snack, and you feel your eyes widen in shock when she orders a double cheeseburger off the menu. Is this really a smart diet?
“Are you really going to eat that?” You stare in awe at the size of the two monster hamburger patties. She quickly peels the bread off her burger, discarding it on the side of her plate.
“Sure,” She quips. “I can eat all the meat I want, cooked anyway I want.”
With all the fad diets circling around, it’s important to evaluate a diet before signing on. Is it really a smart diet? Sure, your friend looks amazing, but can it really be healthy to eat a pound of bacon and greasy burger meat every day? It doesn’t sound like a healthy lifestyle. The fact is that your body NEEDS carbohydrates for energy, and people on the Keto diet have reported fatigue and experienced constipation, irritability, insomnia, menstrual irregularities, kidney stones, thinning hair, muscle loss and high cholesterol/lipids.
The same is true of low fat diets. While you may drop weight fairly easily by limiting your fat grams, it’s not a smart way of eating. Your body actually NEEDS some fats. These fat-free foods are often loaded with extra sugar and chemicals to make them taste better. Many of these man-made chemicals make digestion difficult and can cause cancer.
Many fad diets require you to load up on a particular type of food while depriving yourself of other foods. What you aren’t being told is that this is not a healthy long term solution. Your body interprets a severe reduction of calories as a famine and lowers your bodies metabolic rate (rate at which you burn calories) as a result. This makes weight loss more difficult and results in WEIGHT GAIN when you are off the diet. According to studies 25-50% of weight loss on fad diets is actually loss of MUSCLE!
The bottom line is that to lose weight and KEEP IT OFF, you must make healthy lifestyle choices! Sustainable results come from eating balanced meals and incorporating an exercise regimen into your daily routine. There are no fad diets or magic pills that will provide you with long term success. If you are unsure about HOW to create balanced meals or HOW to incorporate an exercise regimen into your life, we can help. We are certified through the National Academy of Sports Medicine and work with people of all levels of fitness to achieve their goals and set them up for long term success!
We specialize in creating innovative, effective workouts for individuals of all fitness levels – those new to the gym and advanced athletes. If you aren’t seeing results in the gym, we can help! Check out our online training programs for details.
