5 reasons to trash that crash diet!

There’s a school reunion coming up and you want to look your slimmest best before those long lost school mates. Or even that big, fat family wedding where you want to move and groove to the music.

 So you decide to go on a crash diet and opt for an easy weight loss plan! But does it really help you in the long run? Experts say, no and here’s why:

You gain fat instead of burning it !  Out of the blue, when you reduce calorie intake, you body interprets it as a signal of starvation and starts storing excess fat as a defense mechanism rather than burning it. So in the long run, your metabolism gets slowed down and you end up gaining fat, instead of losing it!

You suffer from hunger pangs all the time ! When you starve yourself, the blood sugar levels drop. This could leave you with a craving for food and you could easily end up binging on carbohydrates causing you to pile on those pounds!

You end up dehydrated & lethargic !  Your weighing scale says you lost so many pounds. But does it tell you that what you manage to lose were only fat cells? In fact, during a crash diet, the first thing your body shrugs off is precious water components as well as proteins. It’s no wonder then that you end up feeling dehydrated, irritable and lethargic all the time when you are on a crash diet.

Your body stops functioning normally !  The food pyramid is there for a reason.

Energy giving food items : Like carbohydrates help you carry out day to day activities seamlessly. 

Body builders : Such as proteins, help to repair those damaged muscles or shore up those bones.

Protective food : Vitamins & Minerals fall in this category; help build an inner shield to ward off those bacteria & viruses.

 Each time you deny yourself a serving of any of these food categories, the functioning of your entire body system gets affected.

You r body suffers from severe side effects! A study was conducted by Dr Rayner and her colleagues on 21 participants who were obese and aged 52 on an average. They were fed 600-800 calories per day for 8 weeks.  MRI scans were performed at the beginning of the study, 1 week later and at the end of the study. While the participants developed better insulin resistance, healthier levels of cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure, the heart fat levels rose by 44% and were correlated with dysfunctions in the heart’s ability to pump blood.