Crash diets don't work: Here's why
A recent study followed people for two years after their diets and found that 83% of them gained back more weight than they initially lost.
Why don't crash diets work?
In evolutionary terms, the human body is designed to maintain your weight and is hard-wired to do this. Crash diets don’t work long term. Fact.
Crash diets are not sustainable and are low in calories.
Diets are often boring as your food choices are heavily restricted.
Dieting can cause elevated levels of cortisol which can promote weight gain.
They can sometimes cut out entire food groups, which is not healthy and can lead to nutritional deficiencies and long-term health issues.
Often you are losing water or muscle weight.
Body metabolism slows down to adjust to the restricted calories and rather than go into fat-burning the body can go into fat storage mode.
Crash diets don’t address any emotional and mindset issues.
Dieting can make you ‘food-obsessed’ and food can be seen as a reward.
Weight loss and happiness are two different things.
Will power alone often isn’t enough to keep you on track.
It’s important to note that losing weight will also not necessarily make you ‘healthier’. Dieting is stressful and does not teach you to eat healthily. In the short term, you may look at the number on the scales and you may have lost weight and think the diet is working but any initial dramatic weight loss is often down to fluid loss. It is not a clever way to try to lose body fat as your metabolism slows down and you produce more of the hunger hormone (ghrelin) and less of leptin (a type of fullness hormone that regulates fat storage) as your body attempts to cope with fewer calories.
These crash diets are often boring as your food choices are heavily restricted. After some rapid weight loss initially, these diets are not sustainable as you will end up putting the weight back on, and often more. Not to mention that they leave you feeling miserable, undernourished, grumpy, tired, weak, unhappy, frustrated even depressed and can result in insomnia, poor concentration, lower energy levels and poor brain health.
In terms of your brain health, due to these diets being very low in calories and essential fats and, as your brain can only use glucose as an energy source, your concentration and brain health will suffer, as well as putting yourself at risk of developing nutritional deficiencies. So, in order to achieve and maintain health for the long-term, you need to adopt healthy habits lasting a lifetime and think about what you can have so turn eating into a positive experience.
So, here are 5 recommendations for long-term healthy eating and avoiding crash diets.
1. Plan ahead
You know what you are going to eat and sometimes making the decision when you are hungry and tired can be where it all goes wrong.
2. Eat breakfast and never skip meals
To help keep hunger at bay and balance your blood sugar levels, ensure food consistency. Research shows that people who eat breakfast tend to have a more balanced diet overall. So, start your day with a healthy breakfast which includes protein e.g. eggs or porridge with nuts and seeds, which will avoid you becoming overly hungry. Steel cut oats or rolled oats are a much better option than the instant 3min. microwave porridge. Due to the latter being a untra-processed and ultra-milled food item.
3. Portion control
This is an important part of maintaining a healthy diet especially when it comes to weight loss. Take a look at your portion sizes as it can be possible to eat too much of a good thing. Perhaps, adopt a Japanese cultural practice. Japanese residing in the region of Okinawa recite a phrase before every meal: ‘Hara hachi bu.’ It reminds them to eat to 80% full, instead of stuffing themselves. Okinawans are famed for their longevity of life.
4. Exercise
Regular exercise will keep your metabolism high. Exercise is key for weight loss as it can help improve glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity, burning calories while reducing abdominal fat. However, the simple and consistent act of movement can never be undervalued. Moving for as little as 10min. after a meal or snack is proven to reduce the impact of erratic sugar spikes by as much as 35%.
5. Prioritise your sleep
Sleep also plays a critical role in weight management as it controls the hormones that regulate metabolism and appetite. With poor sleep, leptin levels fall which can cause constant feelings of hunger and ghrelin levels rise causing an increased appetite so can encourage cravings and cause you to overeat.
Finally, getting the right help and having the right mindset is key to maintaining a healthy weight and optimising your long-term health and happiness. For long term success, think of your well-being in terms of adopting a healthy lifestyle rather than being on a diet so that you glow and feel good from the inside out.
Extracts taken from A. Gear from https://www.nutritionist-resource.org.uk