Crash Diets, Crash Dieting Plans.. Healthy?

At SureSlim we hear people talking about “crash dieting” without really knowing what they mean.

All health experts agree that a crash slimming plan is the last thing you should do if you want to lose weight. And yet, thousands of people every year embark on a sudden, quick weight loss programme which can often do them more harm than good.

The first six months of the year often see the heaviest reliance on crash dieting. This is from people who are trying to lose weight after Christmas, or embarking on a slimming programme so that they look good in the summer. What they fail to realise is that if they try to lose weight in this way, they could end up losing more than body fat, and ultimately gaining the weight back, and possibly becoming heavier than they were before.

The problem with weaning people off slimming plans like these is that they often produce the desired results in the very short term. People do lose weight. This is, however, because they have restricted themselves to a very limited range of foods, and have reduced their calorie intake dramatically. This will result in weight loss, because the body isn’t getting its usual amount of calories and so starts to use up its own stores of carbohydrate to increase energy. This type of eating plan isn’t sustainable in the long term though, because limiting your range of foods also limit’s the intake of certain vital nutrients and, in the long run, this will cause more harm than good.

On this type of plan, you will also be losing more than the body fat you were aiming for; you will be losing muscle mass as well, and this isn’t desirable because it’s a lot harder to replace. Indeed, if you lose weight through body fat and muscle mass on these types of plans, and then return to your original weight, it is likely that the weight gain will be all body fat and no muscle.

When you are considering what type of slimming plan to choose, think about what you want to achieve. If it’s long-term weight loss, combined with a healthier lifestyle and more energy, then forget the crash diet plans; they can’t deliver those results. Instead, choose a sensible, balanced eating plan that encourages you to lose weight by eating the right things in the right amounts - that can be a recipe for life.

Start losing weight with SureSlim now..