“Lose 5 kilos in a week”. It is common to read this type of thing (even more so in the Internet age) if we are looking for a diet to lose weight, but it is usually accompanied by strict diets that are not clear whether or not they are healthy.
Strict diets, which limit food intake or have a pre-established menu that we cannot get out of, can make us lose weight in a short time, but they are not as good as it may seem according to experts.
The dangers of strict diets
Crash diets promise great weight loss in a short time, such as the alternate day diet that they tell us about in Vitónica or fast metabolism diet. According to experts, they can facilitate adherence because you begin to lose weight quickly, and as meal plans are already established, we do not have to think about what we eat because the diet tells us, but all that glitters is not gold.
If we want to lose weight in a healthy way, Vitónica recommends that what we change are our eating habits and let’s follow not a “diet” but a healthy diet because weight loss will be a final consequence of this type of diet.
With the so-called miracle diets we lose weight but experts warn us that “the problem is at the cost of what is achievedthe duration that this weight loss has and the effects in the short and long term”.
A weight loss
The dietitian and nutritionist Juan Revenga explained that “the more diet periods people do, the more fat they gain”because If we focus our diet on a diet culture, what we achieve in the medium and long term is a lack of nutritional and dietary control. at that at certain times of the year we punish ourselves with very restrictive diets to lose weight that we then gain when the diet ends.
In fact, a strict diet can reduce satiety signals and daily calorie expenditure according to a Obesity journal researchso at the end of the diet we will cause the so-called rebound effect that makes us gain the weight we had lost almost as fast as we lost it.
If we don’t change our habits and adopt a healthy lifestyle with good nutrition and physical exercise, we are doomed to continually gain and lose weight. On a practical level it is much more beneficial to change your habits and keep your weight under control throughout the yeareven if it takes longer to get the results we expect in terms of weight.
The negative effects of a big weight loss
The rush when it comes to weight loss is never a good companion. Losing more than 10 kilos in a month is something that makes the body suffer as it is not a progressive loss. Experts warn that a large weight loss from a diet that is too restrictive or strict can lead to chronic fatigue, dehydration, injuries and even eating disorders.
It can also end up affecting our metabolism and cause nutritional deficiencies. various studies point out that diets that restrict more foods stress levels increase in the body, increasing cortisol levels in our body and affecting our emotional health.
Some strict diets that are protein can also generate a vitamin or calcium deficiency, which can affect our bones, eye tissue or cause dry skin among other side effects, and According to Vitónica experts, we can also suffer from digestion problems..
How to lose weight without using a strict diet
The main disadvantage of strict diets is that they do not contribute to a change of habits that does cause weight loss and control over time. To lose weight in a healthy way, we can follow a balanced diet such as the Mediterranean diet or try intermittent fasting, for example.
With this type of diet we will not feel that we are on a diet and we will lose weight as a final consequence of a change of habits that will be very beneficial for health. Add physical exercise to the equation, even if it is at home and on a mat with a pair of dumbbellsis a way to help weight loss.
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Although the really important thing is that if we want to lose weight we go to a health professional to give us a medical check-up and adapt the diet to our needs and shortcomings.
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Photos | Ella Olson, Hermes Rivera, Thought Catalog Y Jamie Matocinos in unsplash