Ever went on a weight loss dieting phase, ready to look snatched, only to end up with more weight than before? If so, then you’re not the only one. In fact, most diet plans start off with these big promise about helping you lose 1000 kilos in a single minute (pardon my exaggeration), but one way or another, you end up feeling lost, off the track and with more pounds than before.
These quick-fix promises are like pie crust – broken and crumbling. And this is exactly why you weight loss diet plans can be quite counterproductive. Instead of jumping on the latest trend, take a step back to actually understand why weight loss diets are bad for you!
In A Glance
In this blog, you’ll learn about some of the most common weight loss mistakes people make, which makes their diet counterproductive such as:
- Over-Restrictive Diet: When you restrict your diet, you end up in a binge eating pattern, ending up gaining all the weight back.
- Quick-Fixes: These diets push into the yo-yo dieting pattern, meaning you gain weight the minute you get off the restrictive diet and eat normally again.
- Slowed Metabolism: Another reason why your diet is counterproductive is that it slows down your metabolism, making it difficult to shed those extra pounds.
- Psychological Impact: Other than giving you health problems, restrictive diets mess up your relationship with food, leading to a lot of anxiety, stress and negative body image.
- Not Sustainable: These diets are not sustainable and compromise the nutrition your body needs to function in a healthy manner, so you’re always low on energy and at a risk of hair and nail loss, poor skin, and deteriorating mental health.
- Key Takeaways: A quick rundown of what you learned in this blog.
- FAQs: Questions most people ask about why weight loss diet plans can be counterproductive.
5 Reasons Why Your Weight Loss Diet Plan is Counterproductive
1. Overly Restrictive Diet Pushes You Into Binge Eating
One of the biggest downsides of an overly restrictive diet plan such as the Scarsdale, Snake or Liquid Diet can push into a binge eating problem. This reasons for this are quite simple. By lowering your calorie count exponentially, you’re cutting back the necessary energy your body needs. With lower calories, you’re also demonizing certain food groups, which either compromises your nutrition or your dietary preference.
In fact, several studies have shown that y restricting your diet intake, you feel a sense of deprivation, which leads to intense cravings and eventually, overeating. This sense of emotional lacking also leads to overeating due to emotional instability, again, leading to binge eating. What happens is – whatever weight you ‘lost’ due to fasting (or self-starvation), you end up gaining it all back!
For sustainable weight loss and lean muscle mass gain, consider the Ideal Protein Diet!
2. Quick Fix Diets Lead To Yo-Yo Dieting Pattern
A quick-fix diet such as Keto or Code Red diet push you into this ‘yo-yo dieting’ state, which is a constant pattern of losing weight only gain it all back up once you finish the diet and start eating normally again. This eating habit is not only frustrating, it is also extremely hazardous to your physical health.
In fact, according to a study published in the American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology and Metabolism, the yo-yo diet has adverse effects on your cardiovascular health and body’s insulin levels. While there might be some weight loss, it will neither be sustainable, nor achieved in a healthy manner.
If you’re looking for instant weight loss, you could consider these 4 Keto meal prep options!
3. Excessive Caloric-Restriction Causes Nutritional Deficiency & Slows Down Your Metabolism
When you’re on a diet, you calories can be way off under your average calorie intake recommendation, for instance you’re told to consume 2000 Kcal but for a ‘deficit’, you consume 1100 Kcal, this is a tremendous restriction. This is an example of immense caloric restriction.
More often than not, such a restriction leads to nutritional deficiencies, impacting your hair and skin, your energy levels, your ability to do workouts, and more. When the body is deprived of the nutrients it needs, its overall functioning power declines, leading to stress, exhaustion, poor immunity, gut health problems, and more.
This can also make losing weight a lot harder. Bringing a sudden calorie cut down into your diet causes your body to adapt to the new i.e. ‘lesser’ calories as a survival mechanism. This means now, your metabolism will save up energy, which means your body is not going to burn calories at rest. This makes your weight loss extremely difficult – and is counterproductive as well!
Want to rev up your metabolism? Explore the Fast Metabolism Diet!
4. It Psychologically Impacts Your Relationship With Food
One of the biggest weight loss mistakes people make is limiting their food options as this takes a toll on their mental health. It means that some foods are ‘bad’ or you shouldn’t be eating ‘this’ or ‘that’. This puts you in a constant state of denial and restriction, leading to anxiety, stress and body negativity.
Due to the nature of this diet, you’re always measuring your own beauty against how much weight you lost. Even your fitness level is evaluated based on how skinny or petite you look, creating an unhealthy relationship with food. According to a study in The International Journal of Eating Disorders, the reason why most weight loss plans are counterproductive are due to the way diets impact mental health.
Want to feel better? Learn more about fitness and mental health – the yin-yang to a productive life!
5. It Offers Only A Short-Term Solution
Restrictive diets are just not sustainable in the long-run. Your body needs energy along with all the nutrients that wholefoods such as baked or overnight oats, chia pudding or superfood snacks offer. Sure, these are all calorie-dense, but they’re highly valuable to your body’s nutritional needs.
While calorie-restrictive diets offer a short-term solution to your weight loss, you need a diet that’s loaded with vitamins, minerals and nutrients in order to support a gradual but steady weight loss. In addition, you need a diet that’s rich in protein so you always feel satiated. This will also cut back your unnecessary calorie cravings.
Make sure you’re incorporating protein along with vegetarian salads, vegan options, fruits and wholefoods so you’re body is always nourished!
Too busy to prep anything? Go for these healthy on-the-go snacks or protein smoothies post-workout!
Key Takeaways
To wrap it all up – sure, instant weight loss is something everyone wants. Why wouldn’t you want a snatched waist right after Christmas holidays, right? However, you shouldn’t be relying on instant weight loss diet plans to lose weight. This is because these diets are highly restrictive and despite the aesthetics they might help you achieve, they lead to nutritional imbalance, weight fluctuations, mental health problems, etc. In order to lose weight in a healthy and steady manner, you need to embrace nutrient-dense whole foods, lean sources of protein and low-fat options. With just a few habits, you’ll be able to reshape the way you look at diets completely!
FAQs
Yes, dieting can be counterproductive for many people. While you might get great results and that too, rapidly, it often leads to a cycle of constant weight loss and gain, which is the yo-yo dieting pattern. This is because you can’t possible stay in a restrictive diet for too long. Since these low-calorie diets slow down your metabolism, losing weight becomes harder overtime. Hence – diets can be counterproductive.
Some of the biggest downsides of restrictive dieting include a slowed metabolism, a lot of nutritional deficiencies that can lead to health hazards, and a deteriorating relationship with food. It also impacts your stress and anxiety levels, affecting your mental health as well. You’re also likely to feel deprived, which leads to a binge eating disorder. Due to a lack of sufficient nutrients, you’re also likely to experience lower energy levels, which can affect your quality of life.
The 4 common reasons why diets don’t work are:
- They are not sustainable and cannot be continued in the long-run.
- They slow down your metabolism, making your body resistant to weight loss and calorie burning.
- They cause nutritional deficiencies, leading to a lot of health problems.
- They impact your mental health, creating a binge eating disorder, making you perceive food in a negative way.
