Signs of spring are a-stirring and most likely starting to nag at you that you haven't started on those weight loss goals that you set way back at the beginning of the year as part of your New Year's resolutions.  And because you haven’t started yet or made some half-hearted attempts, I can just bet that your first tendency is to go off the deep-end and “crash diet.” But that’s the worst thing you can do!

     Why? Because your body freaks out and thinks that you are starving it to death when you decide that a very low-calorie diet is the answer to your “getting started” dilemma. Therefore, your current body metabolism slows down to conserve the resources it has (your body fat, muscle) in order to survive. This is one of the reasons why you tend to regain weight when you lose it too quickly.

    Another negative to a crash diet is that when you cut down your caloric intake to less than a 1000 calories a day, about half of the actual weight loss comes from a loss of protein or muscle tissue instead of the fat tissue that was your goal in the first place – and actually increases the percentage of fat in your body! Not exactly the end result you had in mind, I’m willing to bet.

     Other reasons that you may want to rethink the crash diet is the loss of nutrients and the toll that mineral and electrolyte imbalances places on the body that can even be life-threatening! The loss of bone mass is especially detrimental to women since they tend to diet more frequently than men placing them at higher risk for osteoporosis. 

     All in all, losing weight too rapidly is just plain not good sense and should be supervised under your physician’s care. So if you need to lose weight, do it slowly – you’ll be happier,  more safe and more likely to keep it off in the long run!

What does a Healthy Diet Really Mean?