Don’t Starve, Eat!

A restrictive diet can have some very harmful emotional and physical consequences that can not only affect you now but long into the future. Emotions aside, the physical effects of dieting can be far reaching. For one, most of the massive weight loss is usually regained due to the lifestyle being unsustainable! Our physiology is not made to restrict food. We need a healthy lifestyle that is sustainable!

Fad diets usually end in the regaining of all the lost weight. A study in the early 1990’s involved a group of obese woman that had lost an average of >20lbs. These women were not properly educated in a sustainable, healthy nutrition regime which resulted in the eventually regaining of all the weight that was lost within four years. Fad diets and restrictive diets are not a long-term weight loss solution. While you can lose some weight in the short-term in the long-term you are more than likely to regain the weight and more by “falling off the diet wagon” and binge eating!

Likewise, your physiology usually kicks in; cortisol is released causing fat uptake. The stress hormone cortisol is released when our body is under stress such as metabolic stress that coincides with dieting. Who cares? Well the secretion of cortisol during times of long-term metabolic stress (long term food restriction; dieting), can induce fat storage as a safe guard against future periods of metabolic stress. And as luck would have it, the majority of these fat receptors are around the abdomen!

While food restrictive dieting is not recommended for the majority of healthy individuals, it can be appropriate for severely overweight individuals or people at risk of certain diseases. This risk group aside, normal healthy individuals will find no benefits of severe food restriction! At one point or anther the majority of us have tried a fad diet for quick weight loss results. Does it ever work? Well it can in the short term, but very rarely in the long term.

Everyone has done it and it usually leaves us feeling empty or even emotionally drained. We need healthy eating habits not only for psychological reasons but also to live a healthy life. To combat this we need a healthy lifestyle change that is sustainable! A sustainable lifestyle doesn’t have to be super hard it can be convenient and include some of the things you love! One way to start is by eating a hearty, nutritious breakfast every morning! This can satiate your appetite throughout the morning and fuel you up for a productive day.

Fad dieting is not the way to achieve sustainable weight loss goals. Each person needs a personalized plan that fits into their time and monetary budget. If it doesn’t fit your lifestyle how will it possible help your waistline? If you take anything away from this article is that food restriction is not the road to a healthier or even happier you, it paves the way for terrible eating habits that can affect your physiology. Start eating healthy today, you deserve it!