Why Fast Weight Loss is Really a Bad Idea

The internet is rife with fad-diets, ‘lose a stone in a fortnight’ and ‘burn fat without any effort’ promotions, but what you should know is that none of these methods really work. Now, let me explain why sudden weight loss is such a bad idea.

Sure, they might make you lose a dress size pretty rapidly, but at what expense? You may not be eating properly, and chances are you’re following a diet that you couldn’t bear to keep up for more than two weeks. People follow these fad diets anyway and they do lose the weight in time for a friend’s wedding or a holiday. All is well! Until they start eating again.

They continue with their normal (perhaps even healthy) diet and are astounded to find the weight piling back on, and then some! They end up bigger than they were when they started the diet. Fast weight loss put the body into a state of shock, where it thinks it’s being starved of nutrients. Instead of shutting down and providing no energy, the body starts tucking into the food reserves such as our fat and muscles in order to keep us going. That’s where the weight loss comes in.

As soon as you give your body some food, however, it immediately thinks ‘I need to make this last’ and stores whatever it can as a fat reserve for later. It’s not a good look. All of a sudden your body is storing the fat from everything you eat in all the wrong places. What’s more, because you lost weight so fast your muscles are depleted and rather than looking plumper but toned with this extra weight you look flabby and there’s no elasticity to your body.

At this point it takes a great deal of exercise and eating a proper diet to get back on track again, perhaps even to the weight you were before considering a fast weight loss diet. Yes, they do work, but on a very short term basis and one that’s at a detriment to your long term health and your own view of your body. If you wish to look healthy throughout your weight loss and carry it out so that you stay slim for the rest of your life then the changes need to be well thought and and most importantly sustainable.