Crash dieting is never really a good idea, as it forces your body into thinking it is under famine conditions and will actually slow down its metabolism, reducing your ability to lose weight. That means even if you only eat 700 calories in a day---too low for a healthy adult of any age---you might not lose weight. When it is acutely deprived of calories, the body cannibalizes lean muscle tissue to preserve fat stores, thereby defeating your goal of fat loss. Lean muscle is what burns calories for permanent, long-term weight loss.
What Is a Crash Diet?
Crash diets are very low in calories and do not provide adequate nutrition in protein, vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids to support normal mental and physical activities. If you consume less than 1,000 calories in a day, you might lose a pound---but it will be regained in a day, once you eat normally.
Crash diets might eliminate an entire food group, such as carbohydrates, or they might consist only of protein and water. Eliminating important fiber may create irregularity as soluble and insoluble fiber is needed to move waste out of the gastrointestinal tract.
Hazards of Rapid Loss Diets
You may have been tempted to simply starve yourself for two days prior to an important event where you want to look and feel thinner. However, crash diets may result in dehydration, constipation, weakness, fatigue and irritability. Some people even break out in skin rashes from vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
Worse, by crash dieting for a few days, you risk losing your will power, overeating and consuming far more calories than you normally would---and gaining additional weight. Rebounding is a common side effect and not only frustrating but can lead to other destructive behavior such as using laxatives. If the cycle becomes habitual, the risk for disordered eating is high.
Try a Nutritional-Boost Diet Instead
If you must diet to lose as much weight as possible in two days, follow the dietary guidelines designed by the U.S Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) in My Food Pyramid for weight loss. Eat fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains, lean protein, low-fat dairy foods, legumes and non-saturated fats. Use their sample menus and prepare four or five smaller meals and two very small snacks. Prepare them one day ahead and consume only the planned foods for each day of your two-day plan.
New Habits
Ideally, you will feel the difference from eating a balanced diet, and extend your two-day experiment, add moderate exercise and a stress management plan---and you will lose weight, permanently and safely.
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