Dieting – Why Fad Diets Fail

Fad diets are those diets that claims fast weight loss in just a few days with minimum effort except to stick out with the diet plan. There are several of those being flooded into the market every month, always well advertised sometimes well endorsed and fatally frustrating. Simply put, fad diets are always starvation diets and therefore unrealistic. It fails this way.

Fad diets are foods that one has to endure. On top of that, a person on a fad diet is told to eat less and if the fad diet comes with an exercise program, to work more. The only saving value is that it is low on fat and generally low on sodium but so is water. These, therefore, need preparation. Every preparation however tastes unappealing bordering on unpalatability.

Fad diets may sometimes come together with an exercise program. But if one is to observe carefully, initial weight loss happens this way. A body that perspire losses water and water is heavy. When the dieter checks the weight after the exercise, there is truly a weight loss. But drink water and the body go back to the original weight. The water then that was lost during the exercise will only equal to the weight that was lost on perspiration. The impression however will be different.

The body then starts to slowly react to the starvation diet losing water in the cells which then translate to weight loss. As you continue the starvation diet, the body will start feeding at the muscle and therefore you lose weight. Because you are avoiding the eating of fat (which the body by the way also needs), the tendency of the body is to conserve all the fat that is in store. It will go on for a time say 15 days depending on your metabolism. Now, when the body has burnt most of the energy in the muscle, the person starts to get weak. The reason for this is that it is already starting to burn the fats that are stored in the body and which the body has tried much to conserve.

The irony is that, fats do not burn easy. Unlike other energy foods that the body is used burning to provide the energy to stay alive, burning the fat will in itself take more time to provide the energy needed and then the person on a fad diet starts being phlegmatic in movement. Performance will be poor, activity will slow, and even the exercises will take a lot more effort that, after a while, is dropped also.

Obviously, the point in going on a diet is to be healthier, let alone fit. A fad diet works to the contrary. The weight loss effects are immediate; it always is because it has to be, but the desired effect and the ideals in which the dieter started with is not.

True enough weight loss happens even emaciation (if the person will last that long), but lack of energy and other unhealthy symptoms does too. For most people, realization sets in fast. The body that has been crying out for the nutrients to keep it functioning will eventually be heeded and the fad diet forgotten. As that happens, the person will start to eat and regain all that which was lost during the time that the body is being starved. What is more is that it usually does not end there. The craving for food that has been suppressed are often overpowering that weight in fact starts gaining more.