Health Advice For U
Page: dietandnutrition

Health Advice For U
Child Care
Dental Care
   Dental Health
   Cosmetic dental procedures
   Holistic dentist
Detoxification
   Detox side effects
   Ways to detox
Diet and Nutrition
   Alkaline diet
   Beans
   Berries
   Coconut oil
   Frozen Food
   Garlic
   Mediterranean diet
   Nuts
   Oats
   Raw Food Diet
   Super foods
   Yogurt
Diseases
   Anxiety Disorder
   Social Anxiety
   Arthritis
   Diet
   Asthma
   Athlete's foot
   Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder
   Non-Symptoms
   Bipolar disorder
   Bipolar overview
   Bipolar II
   Manage bipolar disorder
   Breast Cancer
   Cerebral Palsy
   Common Cold
   Management
   Haemorrhoids
   Headache
   Migraine
   Irritable Bowel Syndrome
   Thyroid Disorder
   Hay Fever
   Allergy Remedies
   Complications
   Children and Hay Fever
   Exams and Hay Fever
   Diagnosis
   Manage
   Myths
   Natural Remedies
   Pollen Count
   Prevention
   Treatment
   Prostrate
   Sunburn
   Yeast Infection
Gardening
   Landscape
   Organic gardening
   Insecticides
General health
   Exercise
   Energy boosters
Heart Care
Minimal Access Surgery
Parenting
   Baby Sleep
   Baby Sleep Tips
   Parenting Classes
   Parenting Tips
Physical Fitness
Pollution
Pregnancy
Sleep
   Insomnia
   Relieve Insomnia
   Natural Treatments for Insomnia
   Diet and Sleep
   Exercise and Sleep
   Lack of Sleep Problems
   Sleep Apnea
   Signs of Sleep Deprivation
   Tips for Good Sleep
   Too Much Sleep
   Sleeping pill overdose
Skin Care
   Acne
   Acne Scars
   Prevent acne
   Acne Treatment Tips
   Sensitive skin care
Smoking
   Benefits of quitting
   Quit smoking
Spine
Stress
   Exercise Relieves Stress
   Ease stress
Surrogate Advertising
Vitamins and Minerals
   Iron
   Vitamin C
Weight Loss
   5-day diet
   Fat Reduction
   Weight Loss Tips
   Weight loss tips-2
   Green Smoothies
   Green smoothie diet
   Healthy weight loss
   Weight loss failure
   Weight Loss Plateau
   Weight Loss Mistakes
   Weight Loss Medications
Privacy Policy

Crash Diets

 

The worst of all are diets which promise very rapid weight loss. It takes a deficit of about 3500 calories to lose one pound of fat. The average daily intake for the normally active man is 2900 and the normally active woman is 2100. Women burn les calories than men because they are smaller, and have less muscle than men.

 

A weight reducing diet generally cuts calorie intake to about 1000 calories per day for women and 1800 for men, resulting in a deficit of 1100 calories daily. It should therefore take at least 3 days to accumulate the deficit of 3500 necessary to lose one pound.

 

However, if you have ever started a crash diet, you will know that you can lose more weight than this, often as much as 6lbs in the first three days. How can this be done? The diet is a cheat, a con. You are made to think that the weight you have lost is fat: it isn’t. It is simply water. And this water will replace itself automatically once the diet is over.

 

To understand this, the body’s reaction to different types of food must be examined. Most rapid weight loss diets are high in protein, and low in carbohydrate. Water in the body attaches itself to a substance called glycogen, and the level of glycogen in the body is controlled by carbohydrate intake..

 

Thus, when carbohydrate intake is drastically reduced, as happens on a crash diet, glycogen stores are reduced, and the amount of fluid in the body is reduced. This registers as a weight loss on the scales, but it is weight that will be regained immediately once a normal carbohydrate intake is re-established. It is not a fat loss at all.

 

If a strict diet like this is prolonged, some body fat will be lost, but lean tissue will also be lost from the vital organs and this can be dangerous. Also, lean tissue will be lost from the muscles. The more severe the diet, the more lean tissue is lost. Weight regained after the diet, however, will be fat tissue, so the body will be flabbier and look fatter than previously. And fat tissue is lazier than lean tissue, using less calories, so the dieter is more likely to gain weight than before the diet began. It will also be more difficult to lose weight at the next attempt.

 

These facts are well known to the medical profession, and have been widely available for years, yet they are scarcely mentioned in any diet book. Instead, these books often issue strict warnings about determination and lack of will power, making dieters fell guilty and ashamed if they break their diet.

 

Yet, sticking to these programmes requires almost super human will power, because depleted glycogen stores cause intense feelings of hunger. It’s like pulling against a spring: your body urges you to eat, but your mind insists you can’t. If you don’t break the diet, you are likely to overeat when you reach target weight, and are freed from the diet. But, even if you don’t overeat, you will regain weight anyway, because of the greater proportion of lazy fat tissue in your body, because your metabolism has slowed, and because lost fluid will replace itself.

 

Diet/binge syndrome

 

Crash dieting is an uphill struggle, therefore, with the body resisting all attempts to shed that weight. Many people, particularly women, have been dieting on and off for years, and cumulative result is that they now eat a lot less than they did years ago, but they weigh a lot more. Their metabolic rate drops from one diet to the next, making them ever more likely to gain weight.

 

The psychological effects are devastating. They feel helpless and inadequate because they cannot cope with their problem. They are full of shame, self loathing and self disgust. Their lives are a continual circle of diets, broken by binges when the diets become too much for them.

 

How can the destructive diet/binge cycle be broken? The answer lies in a regular well-balanced diet, augmented by some form of aerobic exercise. Of course, the dieters have heard that before. And it is advice that they always reject. Your mind is probably jumping in right now saying “that takes too long, I need something fast”, ‘’what’s a balanced diet anyway?’ or ‘I hate exercise’. The invitation to ‘lose 10lbs in two weeks’ sounds much more attractive, so you opt for that yet again.