Take the “die” out of dieting

It is not uncommon to hear people talking about losing a few pounds before the summer, slimming down for a big event, or shedding some weight for a vacation at the beach.

There are often different times of the year or different events that manage to make everyone a bit more conscious of their weight and their desire to look a certain way.

A healthy diet plan is a great way to lose weight and feel great. However, when you diet to quickly lose a few pounds and then forget about losing weight altogether, you enter into an unhealthy cycle that can often cause more damage than you think.

Yo-yo dieting is described as a cyclical pattern of weight loss where someone will cut calories or eat less in order to drop weight and then return to their normal eating habits after they reach whatever goal they were trying to achieve. Constantly doing this can result in a dangerous cycle of strict dieting, disappointment when weight is put back on and then dieting again to get back to an ideal weight or size.

It seems obvious enough that if you decide to significantly lower the amount of calories and food you take in for a week in order to lose a few pounds; as soon as you start eating normally again you will put the weight right back on.

However, what happens to the body during this cycle is actually a bit more complicated. When you eat less on purpose, your body recognizes that it is losing its source of energy and goes into a type of starvation mode. The body will use the protein stored in your muscle tissue as its main source of energy causing you to begin to lose your muscle mass.

This is important because your metabolism, or the rate at which you burn calories, is directly related to the amount of muscles you have. The more muscles you have, the faster you will burn calories. So when you lose muscle mass, your metabolism is actually slowing down.

Your body will then readjust to the lower level of energy you are supplying it with so that it will burn fewer calories when performing your necessary bodily functions. This means that as soon as you start eating regularly again, you can easily gain your normal weight back plus more because your body is burning fewer calories.

Your body actually requires that some of your calories come from fat, so when you deprive yourself of these calories the body can react by becoming more efficient at storing fat.

When coupled with a slower metabolism, this means that you can actually gain the weight back faster than the rate at which ou would normally gain weight.

In the end you can end up with a greater portion of fat than you started out with originally, since you’ll have less muscle, will be storing more fat and will be burning fewer calories on a daily basis.

Aside from this negative cycle that the body enters into there are also many other harmful effects that are brought on by crash diets.
This type of dieting is extremely hard on your mental health.

Crash dieting will obviously lead to severe food cravings, but can also cause you to feel depressed or irritable.

A dieting cycle like this can also pave the way for severe eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia because when weight is inevitably put back, on many people will obviously become disappointed and long for their smaller size or lower weight and may do anything to get back to that point.

Nutritional deficiencies can result when diets involve restricting the types or amounts of food that you are eating.

Risks involved with not eating the right types of foods involve the possibility of vitamin and mineral deficiencies, or the possibility of potassium or sodium deficiency.

Potassium and sodium deficiencies are particularly dangerous because potassium and sodium are used by the body to ensure the proper functioning of nerves and muscles. In addition, they play an important role in regulating the way that your heart beats and, if levels become too low, the result could potentially be a heart attack.

Skeleton drawing. Art by Shelli Hays.

When you are not getting enough vitamins and minerals, your hair and nails can become weaker and the color of your skin can even begin to look dull.

Crash dieting is also very hard on vital organs like your heart, liver, kidneys and brain.

These organs rely on calories and carbohydrates to provide adequate energy for the performance of their daily functions.

If you limit your calorie intake so much that you have already burned through a good portion of your muscle tissue, your body will start to burn the muscle tissue that makes up your actual organs.

This is extremely dangerous and can lead to liver failure, kidney failure, strokes and heart attacks.

There are other effects of crash-dieting and cyclical weight loss patterns, especially in the long-term. Long-term crash dieters often suffer from osteoporosis, which makes your bones weak and fragile.

Restrictive dieting often limits calcium intake and causes the bones in your body to begin losing their calcium which leaves them weak and brittle.

Constantly losing and regaining weight is also associated with a weakened immune system. Some studies have linked yo-yo dieting to an increased risk for health problems such as high cholesterol, high blood-pressure, and gallbladder disease.

In addition, crash dieting and significantly cutting calories can cause dizziness or fainting.

It may be tempting to cut your calories in order to quickly drop weight and no one can debate the fact that when you stop eating or eat less you do get results. You have to realize that by not eating or eating significantly less, you are actually putting yourself in a position that will be worse than where you started out at.

The only way to actually shed weight and keep it off is by taking slow steps towards a healthier lifestyle.

If you are going to cut down on your calories, do it very slowly; do not drastically decrease the amount that you are taking in on a regular day. This will help maintain your metabolic rate.

Cutting out foods that you love altogether is not realistic and can lead to binging or serious cravings.

Aim to control your portions and eat mostly healthier foods or snacks while still allowing yourself a treat every now and then. And, of course, stay active.

If you do not have time to hit the gym during the day, aim to walk more, take the stairs whenever you can or park farther away from your destinations.

There are plenty of healthy tricks that you can incorporate into your lifestyle in order to lose weight.

While you may not see drastic results in record time, the results that you do see will actually last and be much easier to maintain.

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