Everyone in the world wants to enjoy a model-like physique that makes weight management becomes so important.
Rigorous exercising, careful diet planning, and refraining to eat those oh-so-delicious, extra cheesy pizzas and burgers soon become a common part of our daily routine. However, the problem arises when we make our will to reduce weight an obsession.
Don’t get us wrong, maintaining a healthy weight is extremely important but, resorting to drastic measures that may have a negative impact on your body isn’t.
Hence, it is worth noting right away: do not go on a crash diet!
Crash dieting has several downsides that you would want to avoid. Many people are under the impression that crash dieting can help reduce a lot of weight within a significantly short period of time. The fact of the matter is that this is too good to be true.
Read on as we discuss why crash dieting is not a good option for your health and body.
It will make your blood sugar levels unstable
For proper functioning, a body needs its steady supply of fat, carbohydrates, protein, and fiber. Due to any circumstances, when this supply is disturbed, your blood sugar levels and insulin can become unstable. All those detox diets that you hear about? Well, it just makes you more prone to developing type II diabetes.
The fact that carbohydrates, insulin, and fat storage are interdependent can increase your hunger pangs while simultaneously dropping hypoglycemia or blood sugar levels. You could always opt for healthier alternatives for your breakfast instead of something that has too many calories. For example, buy a blender for smoothies to get your daily dose of nutrients without packing on extra calories.
It will make you very dehydrated, very quickly
The fact that our body is made out of 70% water might already be known by some of you. There is also no doubt that this is quite a huge percentage.
But, in going on a crash diet, you may feel like you’ve lost weight. However, in reality, this is not excess fat that you are losing – it’s water. Restricting your calorie intake forces your body to start burning glycogen to create energy. This glycogen is a carbohydrate form that is stored in our liver and muscles and has water molecules attached to it. Thus, crash dieting not only burns this glycogen but also lowers your water levels.
Dehydration is, again, really bad for your skin and body functioning. All in all, this is yet another reason for you to skip crash dieting.
It may cause a lot of random stretch marks to appear
The process of losing weight should be gentle and properly planned. If you lose too much weight in a relatively short span of time, you may develop side effects such as cardiac issues, sodium depletion, lower immunity, hair loss, lower blood pressure, and of course, stretch marks.
While there is nothing wrong with developing stretch marks, you most certainly wouldn’t want it to be because of your weight loss regime. If you decide to crash diet, you are basically putting the well-being of your skin at greater risk.
Your skin, for sure, faces the brunt of it all. It will lose its lustrous appeal and instead have a dull appearance.
While using a stretch mark cream might be an effective way to curb these markings, why not be a bit more cautious and opt for a realistic weight loss program? This would be a much safer alternative than the crash diet.
It will lower your fat and essential nutrient content
Your body needs foods that have high nutrient profiles to carry out the everyday functioning in the best possible manner. Crash diets strip your body supply of essential minerals, vitamins, and fats that may alter your metabolism. By starving yourself, you are depriving yourself of good nutrients, which can make you lethargic and gloomy. Yes, even mental health can suffer a lot.
Once you are on a crash diet, your body wants to start to restore its food supply. This, in turn, will make you eat an improper amount of food – good and bad – that will defeat the entire purpose of going on a diet.
It will lead to mental anguish
We’ve already mentioned how mental health can deteriorate when you crash diet. When you feel full by eating nutritious food, you automatically feel better and content. However, starving yourself for hours at a stretch will only make you more irritable.
Not only will your work productivity decrease, but even your home life will get hampered. Your body is a temple that needs to be worshipped. And eating the right thing at the right time is a part of this worship.
It will crash your metabolism
Crash dieting is equivalent to starving.
The problem with starving is that your metabolism will not be able to sustain itself in the absence of energy. Lower energy levels are exactly what will occur when you drastically reduce your calorie intake for a long period. In the end, your hunger will simply increase, which will end up sabotaging your weight loss regime.
Lethargy, weakness, and more lethargy
Without giving your body the required nutrition and food, you are bound to feel exhausted and tired all the time. At times, you may feel nauseated as well due to chronic fatigue syndrome which is a common side effect of crash dieting. Hence, please do not abuse your body and stick to eating healthy and reducing weight in the right manner.