Dieting – To do or not to do?

Weight Management
Dieting – To do or not to do?
Weight Loss

While dieting for weight gain is growing in both popularity and recognition, dieting is mostly favoured by people trying to lose weight. If you are healthy and physically fit, yet think that skipping a few meals or halving your meal size will do you a world of good, you may be mistaken.

Dieting, in this popular form, may not be the best solution for you – even if you are overweight or even obese.

There are two sides of the coin. The common approach to dieting, which generally means a short-term weight-loss routine, invariably leads to serious health disorders. Mindful healthy dieting, however, can not only help you reduce weight, it can also add to your general well being.

Unhealthy Dieting

Let us first talk about the various harmful types of dieting. The following are weight-loss practices that should be avoided:

• Crash Dieting . In order to pull off a speedy weight loss, many choose to restrict their calorie intake to an extremely low level. Often amounting to almost total starvation, crash dieting is extremely damaging to ones health. Besides malnutrition, it can also cause ‘yo-yo effect’ which means increased appetite, overeating and consequential weight gain.

• Diet Pills. In the short term, these pills may be effective. In the long run, however, most of these vitamins and minerals laden pills are not only ineffective, but could lead to a number of serious side effects.

• Fasting. While a periodic fasting routine can be beneficial for some, continuous, or daily fasting over long periods of time is damaging. The harmful results may include nutrition deficiency, binge-eating and drastic fluctuations in blood sugar levels.

• Yo-yo Dieting. This means oscillating between heavy meals and long periods of fasting. As fasting can result in considerable decline in metabolism, subsequent food intake gets stored as fat. The resultant deficiency in energy tends to make one feel exhausted and sluggish.

Other Undesirable Side Effects

Unhealthy weight-loss routines can also lead to side effects including increased appetite, eating disorders, fatigue, depression, stress, irritability, flatulence, dizziness, irritability, muscle loss, skin rashes and malnutrition complications. Severe malnutrition complications can sometimes lead to fatality.

Healthy Dieting

Dieting can be healthy if it is done the right way. Here are some suggestions to makes your diet work for you:

• Eat lots of low fat, low calorie and high fibre foods such as fruits and vegetables. Such a diet makes one feel satiated for longer durations thus, making the diet routine more efficient.

• Consider a vegetarian diet. It is a healthy choice, and can also be helpful in losing weight.

• Try Atkins or a low-carbohydrate diet comprised of lots of proteins, fruits and non-starchy vegetables. While not considered suitable for long term use, Atkins helps in speedy weight loss, especially in the beginning.

• Consider natural diets such as the Palaeolithic Diet (a milk and grain free diet believed to be consumed by people during the Stone Age) or the Evolution Diet (includes milk and grains, but excludes hydrogenated oils). These types of natural foods, which do not involve any kind of processing, include vegetables and some meats.

As always, please consider that every individual in unique. You should consult your physician prior to embarking on any drastic change of diet.