8 Reasons Why Crash Diets Do More Harm Than Good

Any diet that promises a quick fix to weight problems is either harmful to your health and body, or will lead you to quickly regain all the lost weight after stopping the diet. Crash diets can be tempting if you need to lose weight quickly for an event or to achieve your ideal body goal in a short timeframe. By sticking to a strict low-calorie diet, you are tricking your body to feel full with only a few healthy items during the day. Usually, these restrictions are hard to follow for a long period of time, which leads people to eventually revert back to their old bad habits and they end up gaining all the weight they lost in no time. Even though you might have tricked yourself into feeling full, your body goes into starvation mode where your metabolism decreases. Your body will start storing fats instead of burning them, which will prevent you from reaching your goal. We have collected 8 reasons why you should never try crash diets to realize how much they can harm your health. 

 

  • Dropping Your Metabolic Rate

Any diet that depends on doing drastic changes to your normal eating habits is bad news. Dropping your calorie intake below your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) will send your body into starvation mode. Starvation mode forces the body to hold on to any calories it consumes and stores them as fats for energy. Starving yourself will decrease your metabolism which results in storing fats instead of burning them. If your body is suffering from excess stored fats that you can’t seem to lose, it’s recommended to take some supplements to boost your metabolism. There is a comprehensive Ultra Omega Burn resource from Ultracrown.com that shows the importance of omega 7 in losing weight. Omega 7 (or palmitoleic acid) is very helpful when it comes to forcing fat cells to release the fats they are storing to achieve better weight-loss results. 

 

  • Cutting Out Important Nutrients 

It’s very hard to decide between crash diets to be able to tell which one will work for you; between three-day diet, grapefruit diet, the cabbage soup diet, any many more, deciding between these diets might be too confusing. Whichever crash diet that you choose to follow will cut out many needed nutrients for your body and this is very harmful to your overall health. These diets don’t only cut bad fats, they also cut good fats that are needed for our health. Having essential fatty acids deficiency can seriously harm one’s health and lead to a stubborn scale needle. 

 

  • Unhealthy Body Image Issues And Eating Disorders 

Following diets is hard, adopting crash diets is even harder. Some people might get obsessed with cutting down their calorie-intake that they end up unconsciously doing this for a long period of time. This obsession with dieting and losing weight might even continue after losing all the excess body fat. This fear of getting fat might get people to end up in hospitals. Following a healthy lifestyle where you eat normally and exercise is ensured to gain you the results you desire without starving yourself. 

 

  • Dehydration 

Cutting down your calorie-intake leads to fast results, do you know why? It’s because most of the weight you are losing is only water weight. This means that you will not only gain all the weight you lost back once you start eating normally again, but it means that this diet might lead to the risk of dehydration. The first signs that appear are low energy, chronic headache, and dizziness. If you are suffering from any of these symptoms, it’s mandatory to drink lots of water and to seek professional help. 

 

  • Weakened Immune System 

Not getting enough vitamins and essential mineral form your diet increases the risk of a weak immune system. A weak immune system causes many issues; the main issue is the increased probability of getting ill. Fatty foods are necessary to absorb essential fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamin A, K, D, and vitamin E. Lacking all the essential vitamins and nutrients will not only lead to a weak body, but it affects your physical appearance as well. Your skin and hair might seriously get affected due to the lack of nourishment. 

 

  • Heart Issues 

Crash diets can have a positive impact on your body such as lowering blood sugar, high blood pressure, and cholesterol, but in return, you are risking your heart well-being. People who are suffering from any heart condition need to consult their doctors or nutritionists before embarking on any diet, especially crash diets. Crash diets can have a serious negative effect on your heart due to the loss in heart muscle and the probable blood vessel damage. Repeating crash diets increase the risk of heart attacks and many other heart diseases. 

 

  • Bad Mood

Crash diets lead to a massive increase in cravings. Fighting these cravings and cutting out certain foods will decrease your “happy” hormones such as serotonin and dopamine. Lacking these mood regulators will make you feel irritated, sad, and unsatisfied. Restricting different types of food, including good fats and pleasure foods will lead to a bad mood. Adopting this lifestyle might even lead to depression.

 

  • Digestion Problems 

Due to the lack of nutrients, vitamins, fatty acids and the slow metabolism, many digestion and tummy issues could occur on crash diets. These diets lead to irregular bowel movements which could cause irritation and stomach aches. Your stool is often a strong sign of how healthy your diet is, watch the consistency of your stool to be able to tell if your diet is working for you or if it’s time to do some serious dietary changes. 

 

Your Way To A Healthy Physique 

Instead of putting yourself down with unrealistic body goals, give yourself the time and enough care to achieve your dreams without hurting your body in the process. Stick to a balanced, healthy diet, exercise regularly, and cut down your sugar and unhealthy fat intake to achieve your ideal body weight. Following a healthy lifestyle is ensured to guarantee you steady and better results than following restrictive diets for a week just to lose water weight and regain this weight once you stop the diet.