At some point, almost everyone has thought about dieting for one reason or another. For many, it is losing a few pounds. For others, it is “gaining weight” during strength training. While being aware and aware of what you eat is a healthy decision, there is a difference between cleaning your meals and going to the extreme. As many experts will reiterate, diets are not successful in the long run, because many people revert to old habits, causing them to regain weight or lose their gains.
In fact, one of the biggest problems with extreme and trendy diets is that they are not sustainable. They require you to change how much and what you eat temporarily, but they don’t necessarily teach you anything about healthier eating in the long run, says Dr. Josh Ax, DNM, CNS, DC, author and founder of Ancient Nutrition. Most importantly, many popular diets can cause damage to your body, so it is vital to think twice before diving into any of these fads. Here’s what you need to know about these current fad diets and for healthier weight loss tips, be sure to check out our list of 15 underrated weight loss tips that really work.
You probably have at least one friend who is an avid supporter of the ketone diet. In this diet, you severely restrict carbohydrates while increasing your fat and protein intake. One of the reasons this approach is so popular is that you lose a lot of weight very quickly. However, while this study shows that the ketone diet can be an effective treatment for epilepsy, the long-term effects of the ketogenic diet in the general population are largely unknown, warns Serena Poon, a celebrity chef and nutritionist.
His main concern with the keto is that it tends to force people to overdose on meat and neglect plant foods.
“Vegetables and fruits are important sources of vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients and antioxidants that really support optimal health,” said Poon. “A poor diet in these foods can leave you with nutritional deficiencies and without protection from disease.”
In addition, she adds that a diet rich in red meat and saturated fat has been shown to increase inflammation, which is a precursor to most chronic diseases.
See why you need antioxidants in your diet – and how to eat them more.
‘I’m in a cleansing juice’ is a common phrase on sitcoms, especially when a character is trying to lose a lot of weight in a short period of time.
In reality, this dietary approach is not sustainable, it can be uncomfortable and it is not good news for your overall health. As Dr. Ax explains, detoxifying juices (like The Master Cleanse or the Cabbage Soup Diet) are typically very restrictive and low in calories, which can be useful for rapid weight loss.
“However, they can also end up affecting your metabolic rate,” he says. “This is obviously the last thing you want when trying to improve your body composition.”
Why does it happen? When we don’t give our body enough energy through calories, it is forced to enter a metabolic state that many call ‘starvation mode’.
“This results in the need for fewer calories per day just to maintain weight, which makes weight loss and even long-term maintenance more difficult,” he says. In addition, you will also lose muscle mass!
Here are 10 signs that a juice cleanse is false.
To put it bluntly, Keith Thomas-Ayoob, EdD, RD, FAND, calls this diet ridiculous. With this dietary approach, you reduce acidic foods, which can cause health problems. Instead, you fill your meals with alkaline foods, which help your body balance the pH and are beneficial. But, as Thomas-Ayoob says, there is little reliable science to prove it, and our body is well equipped to handle the acid-alkaline balance and its pH. And our diet has little impact on that function.
“This diet removes many nutritious foods, including fish, whole grains and dairy products, all of which contain nutrients that are difficult to obtain in other food groups,” he says. “It’s very low in omega-3 fats, for example, since fatty fish (and almost all fish) are banned, as are nuts like walnuts, which also contain omega-3 fat.”
This is dangerous, as omitting good sources of omega-3 is not ideal for promoting optimal heart health. In addition, Thomas-Ayoob says minimizing dairy foods is a great way to limit your ability to get enough calcium, a worrying nutrient because most people can’t get enough calcium.
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Most importantly first: Poon says that a purely plant-based diet can help maintain optimal health. However, moving from carnivore to vegan will require some essential changes and the right food choices. As Poon says, very often, she says people will ‘go vegan’, but then they fill their diet with mostly meat substitutes, like packaged vegan foods and fast food.
“These are still processed foods and, while they may be nominally better than a conventional brand, they are generally not health-supporting foods,” she says. “Many packaged foods contain processed ingredients, such as refined grains, added sugar and oils that can lead to inflammation, which is a precursor to most diseases.”
If you choose a plant-based diet, Poon focuses on eating a variety of healthy plants and supplementing any vitamins and minerals that may be lacking in your diet.
No, you are not eating reptiles on this diet. However, it will probably still scare you. As Dr. Ax explains, this approach involves eating a giant meal every other day – and nothing more. It aims to result in rapid weight loss through prolonged fasting. There are several stages in the diet, the first of which involves eating only about 3,500 calories per week, which is much less than the average needs of an adult.
“Fail to emphasize the importance of nutritional quality and that it is difficult to put into practice if you are a person who likes to eat meals socially with other people,” he says. “Fasting can also be difficult for some people, leading to problems such as mental confusion, mood swings and difficulty sleeping.”
Just as it seems, the Military Diet is very disciplined and repetitive. As Dr. Ax explains, this approach usually involves eating the same various foods over and over again, while keeping to a deficient caloric intake. This could consume only 800 to 1,100 calories several days a week.
“The meals included in this diet are somewhat unusual and not necessarily the most nutritious, made up of foods like cottage cheese, eggs, crackers and ice cream,” he says.
Proponents of this diet claim that you can lose up to ’10 pounds in less than a week ‘.
“But remember that just because the number on the scale may drop when you go on this diet, it doesn’t mean that body composition or health is really improving,” he says. “A reduction in body fat may be associated with improvements in markers such as insulin sensitivity, but weight loss alone can mean that you are losing weight from other areas that you do not want to include muscle mass.”
Also, when you don’t eat enough, it negatively affects your brain and your ability to focus, remember things and be creative.
“You are more likely to feel tired, sluggish and foggy if you don’t have the right fuel, and you may even find that you are sick more easily because stress from the diet can affect your immune system,” he says. .
The thing is, the HCG diet involves taking the HCG hormone in an effort to lose a pound. This is the hormone produced in the body during pregnancy and is usually only administered by prescription for infertility.
Although most experts warn against the HCG diet, Poon says that some people still experience it because of the promise of rapid weight loss. Not only is it dangerous to take HCG (unless your doctor prescribes it for you), it is also problematic and harmful to restrict both calories.
In this diet, Poon explains that you eat only 500 calories a day. Yes, that’s right: 500!
“You can lose weight quickly mainly due to calorie restriction, but you can also experience symptoms like fatigue, depression, blood clots, irregular heartbeat and vitamin deficiency or electrolyte imbalance,” she says. “The risks definitely outweigh the benefits with this one. I would avoid this diet, no matter what.”
Along with these diets, you may want to read our list of The Healthiest Diets of 2020, according to experts.