Why Crash Diets Fail

  Restrictions, metabolism and a body with a different plan

You’ve got only two weeks until your high school reunion and you need to lose 10 pounds. Or maybe it’s more like 40 and your goal is a bathing-suit-body by summer. Either way it seems like an easy solution to cut out the calorie-laden foods you crave and start downing meal replacement shakes, eating only one food (grapefruit or cabbage soup anyone?) or kicking all carbs to the curb.

You lose the weight and feel great about your accomplishments and self-discipline, but it doesn’t last. In no time at all you’ve picked up your old eating habits and started packing the pounds back on. Even when you’ve reached the weight you were at before the diet you continue to gain more. What gives?

Two reasons crash diets fail:

• You’ve lowered your metabolism - Losing weight by severely limiting calories or eliminating important food groups makes it easy for your body to lose weight in the form of muscle as well as fat. Less muscle is never a good thing. Not only does a pound of muscle take up less space in your body than a pound of fat, but it burns more calories and keeps your metabolism in high gear. Without that muscle your body burns fewer calories, even while you sleep. All is not lost though, strength training can help you build new muscle and get back on track.
• Restrictive diets are hard to follow - If you tell yourself you can never have the cappuccino ice cream you love, you’ll likely end up cheating and downing an entire tub. That kind of dieting failure leads people to drop their plans altogether. Making small changes over time is a lot easier to sustain.
  

When you’re on a strict diet there’s also good chance you’re not getting the fuel your body needs to work at peak performance. Once calories are cut below a certain point the body goes into starvation mode because it’s being led to believe food is scarce. This means you’ll be fighting the urge to consume calories while your body tries its hardest not to burn them. It’s hard to think of a better way to set yourself up for weight loss failure.

Resist the urge to diet

A super-restrictive diet is the kind of weight loss plan that will quickly register on the scale, but not for long. It’s been proven that you can eat a very fulfilling amount of food while doing regular aerobic exercise combined with strength training to lose weight slowly and safely. You’re just going to have to give it some time.