Fad Diets and their Faults Adobe Slate Nutrition
The problem with fad diets
As the years go by, the world’s weight levels continue to skyrocket. With this issue, many are turning to popular, short term diets as a solution. Even weight loss veterans are falling for these “fad diets,” as they promise a quick fix and easy to body image and health issues. Yet, many still forget about all the negatives to fad diets, such their lack of calories, nutrients and their restrictions of certain types of foods. With the many faults of fad diets, there has to be an easier way to lose weight without all of the unwanted side effects.
DEFINITION:
A fad diet is a weight loss plan that claims to have fast and dramatic results. They are not sustainable diets and usually do not result in long term weight loss. Never are they recommended by professionals as they tend to cut out important vitamins and minerals, resulting in lack of nutrition.
What are fad diets?
There are specific attribute that differentiate a fad diet between a healthy lifestyle. Often times, these traits can result in harming the human body. Some include:
- It will claim to help you lose certain amount of weight in a week
- It will claim that you can lose weight easily without giving up certain foods or lifestyles
- Requires you to spend a lot of money on pills, certain types of food, brand name products
- Puts certain food as “out of bounds” preventing you from getting a balanced diet with nutrition.
- Claims that you can easily lose weight without exercise
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN FAD DIET AND NUTRIENTS
In order to sustain the overall health of our bodies, we need the proper nutrients. These nutrients are mainly separated into two large categories. Those that the body needs in large quantities (micronutrients) in order to meet energy requirements, and others who are just as important, but need only very little amounts (micronutrients).
Macronutrients include:
- Carbohydrates
- Proteins
- Fats
Micronutrients include:
- Vitaments
- Minerals
- Secondary Plant Compounds
Fad diets tend to include more micronutrients than macronutrients. This is because macronutrients are known to have more calories and be more difficult to burn unless used up as energy. However, it is crucial for a normal diet to include both types of nutrients in order to stay healthy.
So WHY FAD DIETS?
A big problem with fad diets is the reason why people even choose to do them in the first place. People tend to chose fad diets as a weight loss option because they want to lose weight at a rapid pace and receive drastic changes in their body. They yearn to step on the scale and watch it’s numbers quickly fall at great amounts as a short amount of time goes by.
Media Influence
Thanks to the media and current unhealthy lifestyle trends, body image is a huge issue in today’s world. This is one of the many reasons people are turning to fad diets. Even those who understand the side effects of fad dieting still choose, desperate and willing to do whatever it takes to shed pounds. This is all due to insecurities with their body image or health issues related to being a certain weight.
Ignorance
In other situations, people who take part in fad diets are simply uneducated about the wrongs and rights of healthy eating and proper nutrition. Some are completely unaware of the unhealthiness of fad diets. Yet there are people who believe they truly work. This could be because fad diets work for only a short amount of time, people are paying more attention to their weight and intake of food and exercise. As the diet works for its short duration, it seems as though it’s being effective.
Unfortunately, in many situations big corporate companies take advantage of this, developing diets that are ineffective and unhealthy while promoting their products such as pills or brands of food.
The "Quick Fix"
Fad diets usually promise an easy way out for people, using steps that seem simple to help people lose weight. People long for this “quick fix” for their weight issues. They don’t want to commit to something such as a real lifestyle change that is long term and requires more effort. Instead, they want a short term solution. However, really what fad diets do is limit certain groups of food, while they promote food with less calories, fats and sugars that people really need to stay fit and healthy.
The Issue with Fad Diets
Unsustainable
The first and most significant issue with fad diets are that they are very unsustainable. They allow you to lose weight in a short amount of time, but because of this, you tend to gain all of the weight back in a short amount of time
Because they work by constricting, once the diet is finished, you go back to your normal foods. In most cases, people unintentually binge after being constricted for such a long time.
When being constricted, the body believes that it is being starved. Because of this, it stores more fat than it usually would in the body. Once you begin to consume nomral amounts of food again,
Dehydration and indigestion
When you lose weight too quickly, you tend to lose all water weight which can leave you very dehydrated. It’s also very easy to gain back that weight. Also, if you force yourself to lose weight faster than your body naturally is capable of, you can have many serious health issues
Restricting types of food prevents you from getting the nutrients and minerals that your body needs to be healthy and function properly. If you take part in a fad diet, you may be skinny, but also very unhealthy. Depriving your body of calories gives it less energy. Fad diets will make you very fatigued giving you lots of mood changes
Changing your diet quickly can change your bowel movement. Having diarrhea for a long period of time can leave to further dehydration. Being dehydrated can also affect your digestive system.
Diseases
- Heart disease,
- Cancer
- High blood pressure,
- Osteoporosis
- Ketosis
- Kidney stones
The types of fad diets
Nutritionalists typically separate fad diets into different categories depending on their requirements and purposes. Here are some examples.
Another Option
Believe it or not, it’s easy to lose weight while still maintaining personal health. In the end, Ii’s more about a change of lifestyle than a restricted diet. Like previously mentioned, diets are temporary, meaning that even if one were to lose a lot of weight while on the diet, it’s very easy to gain all of the weight back after switching to their original diet once finished. A healthy lifestyle change however, is a long term change. It’s when you alter your way of living into a more effective balanced and nourishing way while still being flexible.
Some traits of a healthy lifestyle include:
- A balance of healthy, nutritious foods
- At least 30 min of daily exercise
- Normal portion sizes with snacks
- Rewarding yourself once in a while
- Geting 7-10 hrs of sleep per night
A Better Way to Lose Weight
If your endgame however is still to lose weight, there are many ways to go about this without sacrificing your healthy lifestyle. These include methods that are both simple but also flexible and beneficial to the health of your body.
- Choosing less sugary beverages such as pops and milkshakes: Their loaded with sugar that is difficult to burn
- Eating lots of healthy snacks: It will boost your metabolism. Try to choose nuts and fruits or a variety of different micro and macro nutrients as both are needed to sustain the body’s energy and vitality
- Drink lots of water: It will speed up your metabolism and keep you hydrated and healthy
- Get lots of exercise: It’s just as important to exercise as it is to eat clean when trying to lose weight. It keeps you healthy, strong and your metabolism up.
- Keeping the junk food out of your house: Out of sight out of mind. If you don’t have junk food around your house, you’re less likely to eat it
- Eat whole foods: Stay on the perimeter of the grocery store and stick to the whole foods.Packaged and processed food tend to be more difficult to break down and burn
Healthy Lifestyle Diets
If you truly do choose to completely change your diet and what it contains, there are even healthy lifestyle diets to choose from. These diets differentiate from fad diets as they are more like lifestyle choices. Instead of limiting types of foods all together, the include substantial substitutes. Therefore, you won’t miss any nutrients. The two most common healthy lifestyle diets include the vegetarian and vegan diet.
Vegetarian Diet
In this diet, you eat no meat. Vegetarians do however, get your protein from nuts and soy products. Benefits of the vegetarian diet include:
- Lower body weight
- Suffer less from diseases
- Generally have a longer life expectancy than people who eat meat.
Vegan Diet
A vegan diet contains absolutely no bi animal products. That means you're not only constricted of eating meat, but also dairy and eggs. Most who choose to follow this diet are against animal agriculture and animal cruelty. Benefits of the vegan diet include:
- Lower body weight
- Benefiting the environment and animals
- Improved physical and mental health.
To conclude, although you may feel obligated to fad diet, it’s very important to remember that doing so is not worth it. They are not only sustainable, but also are worthless and can result in many health issues and diseases in the future. They are very indecisive and untrustworthy. An alternative, if you want the best outcome you must change your entire lifestyle into a healthier one. Like many situations in life, it’s sometimes better to choose the longer, more difficult path if you want to achieve the best, most substantial results.