I t can be tempting to follow quick weight loss plans that guarantee quick and dramatic results. Here we will discuss myths about popular fad diets, explain them, and debunk them.
You might have an event where you want to look thin, or you might want to fit into old clothes that you grew out of, or maybe you just feel a lot of pressure to lose weight and conform to traditional beauty standards. These fad diets will harm your body, and you will gain all that lost weight again too quickly.
While it is healthy to monitor what you eat and stay away from harmful foods, sometimes obsessively keeping track, avoiding important food groups, and solely eating a singular kind of food for a long time in an attempt to lose weight can deprive your body of essential nutrients and damage your organs.
It is important to remember that all body types are beautiful. While healthy and balanced eating with daily exercise is encouraged and important, being skinny means nothing when you are missing important nutrients resulting in weak organs, weak bones, dull skin, and wasted muscles.
Here are some myths about popular fad diets, and the facts about them you need to know.
A popular diet that entails cutting carbohydrates in your diet dramatically or completely, and promises fast and healthy weight loss by removing carbs as your primary energy source. Hence, it is known to break down the body’s natural fat reserves.
Myth: Carbohydrates are fattening. It reduces your chance of developing cardiovascular diseases and diabetes in the long run.
Truth: Carbohydrates are an important food group, and while refined and processed carbs can be harmful, whole-grain carbohydrates contain iron and fiber which are important.
While keto diets can reduce the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in the short term, in the long term, the high fat intake will increase the risk of these diseases and comorbidities.
In a juice cleanse diet, you replace your meals with shakes and blended juices to “detoxify” your colon.
Myth: The help to remove harmful toxins from your blood and lose weight without side effects.
Truth: If continued for more than a couple of days, this diet will result in your body developing multiple nutrient deficiencies, the lack of protein will cause your muscles to deteriorate, and when you resume eating, you will quickly gain all your lost weight.
Intermittent fasting is based on the theory that you can control your weight by changing ‘when you eat’ as opposed to ‘what you eat.’ The 5:2 diet, 16/8, Eat Stop Eat, warrior diet, and alternate-day fasting are some popular types of intermittent fasting.
Myth: It works for everyone, it guarantees weight loss, and you can eat whatever you want in your eating window.
Truth: While intermittent fasting has a lot of recorded health benefits and has some degree of effectiveness, it is not sustainable for everyone. Especially not people with a history of eating disorders, pregnant women, and people in a weakened physical state. Also, it does not guarantee weight loss if you eat more calories than you burn during your eating window and don’t continue a balanced diet.
Amphetamines are, unfortunately, a popular diet ‘hack’ among circles. Especially if one is in the entertainment industry where beauty standards are enforced even more brutally.
Myth: Fast weight loss because of appetite suppression.
Truth: High physical and psychological dependence develops very fast with diet pills. Not to mention, they become ineffective after some time which leads their users to increase dosage resulting in extreme side effects.
Before you start considering any type of fad diet, here’s the naked truth: there is no secret or hidden ingredient and no ‘hack’, no shortcut to weight loss. The only thing you need to do is eat a balanced diet and exercise. If you’re overweight and want to cut down on health risks and adopt a healthy lifestyle for your physical and mental well-being, see a nutritionist who will help you curate a diet plan that will help you cut calories while maintaining all the nutrients your body needs.
These were myths about popular fad diets that you must keep in mind before you consider a diet plan to lose weight.
