Dangers of Fad Diets

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Quick-fix weight loss programs are everywhere these days. They claim to produce easy weight loss and immediate health benefits. While losing weight will better the health of an overweight individual, these diets often produce more health problems than they cure. Some are yo-yo diets where you put the weight back on as soon as you discontinue the diet, some severely restrict caloric intake and/or vital nutrients, and still others proclaim the superiority of one particular food item or group with little or no proof to back it up.

Permanent weight loss is a difficult goal to achieve. An estimated 95 percent of dieters regain the weight they have lost, some ending up even heavier than they were to begin with. The USDA discovered that the key to long-term weight loss and compliance is focusing on the psychological issues involved with eating habits and dieting in general. Changes in eating habits must be made gradually if an individual can be expected to stick with them when the diet is over.

Identifying fad diets is not as difficult as it seems. Watch for diets that severely restrict or advocate one food group, and always doubt any scientific claims that have no scientific evidence to support them. Claims of rapid weight loss are clear warning signs of a diet that will also rapidly return you to your pre-diet weight, and be suspicious of programs that appear to rely on "chemical reactions" to produce weight loss or boost the metabolism.

"Banning" certain foods has got to be one of the biggest mistakes people make when dieting. This will only lead to cravings, and subsequent binges, causing weight gain instead of loss. There are no "good" or “bad” foods, there are just "good" and "bad" eating habits. Dieting should be about altering those poor eating habits so that you not only lose weight, but keep it off permanently.

Dangers of Fad Diets:

Many fad diets are not nutritionally sound, and most of these diets have one major flaw. They tell us to only eat one type of food, depriving our bodies of important vitamins and minerals that are vital to our overall health. These diets can produce rapid weight loss, normally water weight, but the weight seldom stays off long-term.

One side effect of many of these diets is that the improper nutrition can result in a potential loss of muscle density. Fad diets can cause a 3-6% loss of muscle along with any fat lost. If the weight is regained, more fat and less muscle is replaced, resulting in less overall muscle protein. The less muscle you have, the fewer the calories you need to maintain it. This means that over time you will be able to eat less and less without gaining even more weight.

What about the high protein/low carb diets? These diets are supported by very little scientific evidence and actually result in greater water weight loss than fat loss. Experts warn that a diet high in animal protein is loaded with cholesterol and saturated fat and puts people at an increased risk for heart disease. A diet too high in protein can also lead to enlarged kidneys and renal failure. High protein diets are also so low in carbohydrates that the body goes into ketosis (burning muscle for energy), which reduces hunger, but is neither safe nor healthy.

Many of the fad diets that cause a loss of water weight result in dehydration, which puts strain on the body's system in addition to making the dieter feel weak. Lack of carbohydrates means less energy, which in turn often means less activity. And since less activity leads to weight gain instead of loss...