Fad Diets

Have you ever followed a diet plan that has promised fast weight loss in a short period of time, you’ve stuck to it, lost a lot of weight but then the weight loss starts to slow down, then eventually stop and as a result of this you’ve gave up & gone back to your old ways, gained all the weight back & more? This is a fad diet. 

So why does this happen?

All fad diets will have you eating below your basal metabolic rate (BMR). Your BMR is the amount of calories your body needs on a daily basis for your heart to beat, blood to be pumped around your body, your digestive system to work ect. As much as we take this for granted, your body actually needs calories for this to happen, remember calories is simply energy.

 When you don’t give your body enough energy to do this your body effectively thinks you’re starving it and starts to slow down your metabolism. For the first few weeks on a fad diet, your body doesn’t recognise this, hence the large weight loss but as the weeks go on your metabolism is getting slower and slower and as a result, the weight loss slows down and eventually stops. Your metabolism is now slower than when you started your diet so when you go back to eating the way you did before your body is in a worse position to handle the food, this is why you put it all back on and more very quickly.

Summary

Although a fad diet may seem appealing it isn’t realistic to maintain and actually sets you back. You should only be aiming to lose around 1% of your bodyweight in lbs per week, that is much more sustainable and realistic.