HealthChat Women's Health
The Myth Of Crash Dieting
There are many diet fads around. We see them come and see
them go. But there is one strategy that probably every woman
has turned to who has ever tried to lose weight - the "Crash
Diet".
At the time "crashing" might seem a good idea
- stop eating, stop putting in the calories and wait for
the pounds to drop off. However, we may lose the desired
weight but throughout the ordeal we feel utterly dreadful,
and furthermore, what happens when we start eating normally
again? The pounds creep back on and more.
The bottom line is this: crash diets never work!!
And there are very good physiological reasons why not.
We may think we can fool our bodies but we can't. Millennia
of physiological evolution mean that the human body has
well-honed strategies for coping with "crash dieting",
or, in other words, starvation.
- When we starve ourselves the body becomes much more
efficient at laying down fat as a defence mechanism.
- When you lose weight rapidly the body responds by tightly
conserving the few calories that are provided.
- During starvation our metabolism slows progressively,
conserving energy.
- When we return to eating normally the body continues
to conserve ebnergy and efficiently store fat. The result:
our weight returns to its previous level plus some "interest"
in the account.
©HealthChat 2004
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