What NOT To Do When Dieting

What NOT To Do When Dieting

Are you currently trying to lose weight but can’t find the right diet for you? A lot of people are at this point in their lives also, and I’ll be honest, finding a diet that works for you can be tricky sometimes. Everyone is different so that’s why it can be difficult finding the perfect one for you. On that note, I can tell you a few things 

that you definitely don’t want to do when dieting. 

No Calorie Diet: Our bodies need fat, plus healthy fats actually help you burn fat. Unfortunately, the zero-calorie trend is one of the most popular, leading people to consume harmful artificial sweeteners in the name of losing weight. Also, diet drinks can actually cause weight gain because your body reacts to the sweetness the same way it would if you had sugar. It would store fat!

Skipping Meals: This approach may appear to make sense, but really it’s a harmful and unhealthy way to lose weight. Your metabolism increases after eating, and if you constantly skip meals, your metabolism can slow down and actually lead to weight gain. Starving or skipping meals is extremely feeble in weight-loss because it puts your body into “survival mode” meaning it is going to store fat because it doesn’t know when it is going to eat next.

Purging: Purposely throwing up is incredibly dangerous to your health. Purging often comes with serious psychological effects on the individual. The act of throwing up is either a symptom of, or leads to bulimia and it can also increase your cravings for unhealthy foods. Purging creates an illusion that the hunger craving has been satisfied by consuming food, but the calories and nutrition are lost by throwing it up.

Laxatives: Excessive use of laxatives in the form of pills, powders, suppositories and teas in order to lose weight is not a new concept. Continuous use will weaken your digestive system and can cause abdomen related complications.

Smoking: Another popular way to suppress hunger. Smoking sends vague signals to the brain, which increase the metabolic rate, and consequently kill hunger. Chronic smokers can skip meals and not feel any effect. However, this method causes long-term damage as the body becomes weak and more susceptible to cancers and other infections.

1 day Indulges: Many of the fad diets now-a days either promote a 1 day a week “eat whatever you want” or eat that way before beginning the diet.  At first glance itmakes no sense, right?  At second glance, you see the proponent’s goal is to stimulate the body to begin creating the necessary hormones and steps to detoxify and burn the junk you just binged on.  This hypothesis is superficial and falls apart.  It is like saying drive your car to empty before each oil change.  Conceptually it holds ground, realistically, you are just poisoning your body when you purposely eat garbage for an entire day

Like I said, finding a diet can be difficult, but there IS something that WILL work for you. The most important part of committing to a diet is realizing that it is a lifestyle change and not something temporary. Eating healthy and taking care of your body are extremely important and it should be one of our main focuses in life. The diets listed above are NOT healthy and are NOT the answer to losing weight. Eating healthy and exercising your body ARE the answers, there just happen to be multiple ways of incorporating them into your lifestyle. Do you have any tips for eating healthy and what diets have and have not worked for you? Let us know on our Facebook page!

*Simply Skinny