Fad diets surround us today: The Low Carbohydrate Diet, the Non-Carbohydrate Diet, the Low Fat Diet, The All Cabbage Soup Diet, the High Protein Diet, the Grapefruit Diet, the Zone, the Weight Watchers Diet the Hollywood Celebrity Diet and the list goes on and on. Not a day goes by without someone blabbering about how much weight they have lost by following a miracle diet and how great it is.
Nearly all of us have tried one at some point. But do fad diets really work?
The pro on fad diets:
In the short term these diets may cause you to lose weight because in general they lead to an extreme caloric deficit. If you just want to make it into a size 4 for the wedding on the weekend, one of these diets may be of benefit to you.
The cons:
1.The weight that you will lose will be mostly made up of muscle and water. This is especially true in the case of fad diets that severely restrict carbohydrate intake. If your body doesn?t receive adequate carbohydrate intake, it will feed on its muscle for energy.
2. Because much of the weight that you lose will be muscle, these diets result in long term fat gain. Why? Because the speed of the body's metabolism is directly related to the amount of muscle mass that the body carries. So as you continue to lose lean body tissue, your body starts to burn fewer and fewer calories daily. When you go off the diet, you will gain back more body fat then you had originally started with, due to your slower metabolism, giving you a net gain in lard where you least want it to be. So, strangely enough, these diets will actually make you fatter.
3. Most fad diets are quite difficult to keep for a prolonged period of time due to their excessively restrictive nature. You're highly unlikely to stick to a scheme that deprives you of a balanced diet.
4. These diets usually pay little or no regard to health. They are generally unbalanced and low in specific vitamins or minerals due to their hostile approach towards certain food groups or calories in general. For example, low carbohydrate diets lead to ketosis, which causes migraine headaches, a weakened immune system, low energy levels and muscle wasting. Do you really want these side effects?
The bottom line on losing bodyfat while remaining healthy in the long term is that Nothing beats a balanced diet (30% protein 30% fat and 40% carbohydrate) that provides slightly fewer calories than your activity levels demand. Essential to this scheme is a continuing program of cardiovascular exercise and progressive weight training. The cardiovascular exercise helps burn calories and the weight training helps speed up your metabolism and keep your muscles toned. Remember to keep increasing the intensity of your weight training and cardiovascular activity as well. This will allow you to see constant progression.
This strategy is tried and proven and if you look at the fittest person that you know, I'll bet they follow a simple regime like this rather than the latest fad diet.
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