Diet Plans to Lose Weight Fast: Dangers of Starvation

When you are obese, diet plans to lose weight fast seem ideal for solving the problem. However, drastically cutting your calories by starving is not recommended. This method is extreme and it can take a physical and mental toll on your body.

A starvation diet involves reducing your caloric intake to less than 50 percent of what the body needs to perform properly. On top of starving, some people may go to the extreme of using diuretics and abusing laxatives to help them lose weight.

Starvation Diets Cause Damage to Your Physical Health

When you starve yourself to lose weight, you deprive your body of the carbohydrates it needs for fuel. When you eat carbohydrates, they breakdown, turn into glucose and get stored for energy. When there is no fuel in your system, your glycogen stores get low and your body will use its own reserves for energy.

Since your glycogen stores are not endless, you will start to feel extremely tired and weak. Once this happens, everyday movements will become uncomfortable and you will not have the energy you need to exercise, work, or do other activities.

When you opt for starvation diets, you run the risk of nutritional deficiencies that can weigh heavily on your heath.  For instance, when you do not get enough potassium in your diet, you can suffer from cardiac arrest, fainting spells, dizziness, muscle weakness and severe muscle cramps that can lead to immobility.

Iron deficiency can interfere with the production of red blood cells and cause anemia. Low iron levels from starvation can also cause weakness and problems regulating the body temperature. Calcium deficiency can make your bones weak and increase your risk of breaks, fractures and osteoporosis.

In addition, starvation diets can cause cholesterol levels to rise in the gallbladder. When this happens, it can interfere with the body’s ability to get rid of bile properly and lead to gallstones. Gallstones can cause pain, nausea, bloating and indigestion.

Some of the other undesirable physical side effects of starvation diets include dermatitis, conjunctivitis and lesions on the lips.

Starvation Diets Can Cause Damage to Your Mental Health

Starvation diets can lead to body image issues and cause eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia. When you do not eat enough food, your brain suffers as well. When your brain is plagued with nutritional deficiencies, you may have difficulty concentrating, poor judgment, memory problems, mood swings, anger, apathy, depression and hallucinations.

Starvation Diets Do Not Give Long-Term Weight Loss Results

When you drastically reduce your caloric intake, you will notice weight loss in the first couple of weeks. However, any weight you lose on a starvation diet is due to water and muscle loss, not fat.

If you starve long enough, in an effort to conserve fuel, your body will go into starvation mode. During starvation mode, your metabolism slows down and your body will use fewer calories to carry out its daily functions.

Weight loss from starving is not sustainable over the long-term simply because your metabolism adapts to your decreased caloric intake. When your metabolism stalls, you will hit a plateau and it will become harder for you to lose weight.

Because your metabolism does not perform the way it should, the slightest increase in your caloric intake will result in you gaining all of the weight you lost back, plus a few extra pounds. In the end, you will weigh more than you did before you started starving.
 
Starvation diet plans to lose weight fast can be physically and mentally taxing on the body. If you are truly serious about shedding pounds, eating healthy and exercising will give you results that are healthy and sustainable.

Diet plans to lose weight fast should be healthy and sustainable. Learn how to lose weight and keep it off at http://www.thedietsolutionprogram.com/

 

Diet Plans to Lose Weight Fast: Crash and Liquid Diet Dangers

When you want to get rid of extra weight, it is tempting to go on a liquid or a crash diet. These are popular diet plans to lose weight fast because they produce results in a short span of time. Don’t buy into the hype of crash and liquid diets because they are not realistic over the long-term and they can put your health in jeopardy.

Dangers of Using Liquid Diets to Lose Weight Fast

Unless a liquid diet is prescribed and supervised by a medical professional, it is not a good way to lose weight. During a liquid diet, you replace your regular meals with low calorie nutritional drinks. While a liquid diet will help you drop several pounds in the first week or two, it can cause several problems. 

Since you are not likely to stay on a liquid diet for the rest of your life, the weight loss results you experience may not last. The minute you start eating solid food again, you are likely to gain all of the weight back.

Liquid diets are not as bad as crash diets because they do allow you to get some nutrients into your body. However, the calorie restrictive nature of this type of diet may not provide you with enough of the nutrients your body needs to function properly.

For instance, most nutritional drinks do not contain much fiber, so if you drink them all the time, you may suffer from constipation. A liquid diet can also have the opposite affect and cause diarrhea.

Dangers of Using Crash Diets to Lose Weight Fast

During crash diets, you restrict your caloric intake by eating very little food. This type of diet can cause nutritional deficiencies that threaten your physical and mental health. Your body needs carbohydrates, iron, protein, calcium, vitamin C, omega-3, potassium and a host of other nutrients to function properly.

Being deficient in these nutrients can cause fatigue, muscle weakness, weak bones, cardiac arrest, gallstones, organ damage, vision problems, low-blood sugar, muscle cramps, anemia, brittle hair, lowered immune system and several other problems.

Lack of nutrition can affect your brain by causing memory loss, depression, problems concentrating and slow reaction times. Crash diets can also make you obsessed with being thin and lead to eating disorder like anorexia and bulimia.

The weight loss results from crash diets are often short-lived. When you drastically cut the number of calories you consume, your metabolism slows down and your body uses fewer calories to perform. When this happens, it will become harder for you to shed weight, even if you continue to restrict your calories.

If you increase your calories even the slightest bit, you will gain all the weight you lost back, plus a few additional pounds.

Best Way to Lose Weight

The best way to lose weight and keep it off is by following a healthy eating plan.  An ideal eating plan should consist of a variety of nutritious foods that give your body the vitamins and nutrients it needs to stay healthy.

Any nutritional eating plan to lose weight is always more effective when you incorporate exercise. You should try to get one hour of moderate physical activity, five days a week. Doing weight bearing exercise two to three times a week can help increase muscle mass and accelerate your weight loss results.

Liquid diets and crash diets may help you lose a few pounds fast, but these diets can cause the yo-yo effect and result in nutritional deficiencies that endanger your health. If you really want to lose weight and keep it off, eat right and exercise.

Diet plans to lose weight fast should be healthy and sustainable. Learn how to lose weight and keep it off at http://www.thedietsolutionprogram.com/