Why diets don't work!

As Christmas looms the inevitable drinks parties, dinners, mince pie and wine do's (and any other social gathering involving overindulgence) are in full swing! But before you go too mad, concluding that ''you'll start your diet in January'' have a read of the below!

Why diets don't work....
Get thin fast remedies are on every page of every magazine it seems, there are a whole host of “pain free fixes” on the market. On top of this you could add any number of fad diets and the unlimited supply of slimming products, just waiting to take your cash! Slimming products and 'diets' are big business, however sadly they don’t work, and often there’s a hefty price to pay.

“Lose 10 pounds in a week”
Next time you see one of these claims, just ask yourself ‘ten pounds of what?’ It’s only physically possible to lose between 1.5 - 2 pounds of fat in a week, and you don’t want to lose anything else, as it’s your lean tissues that give you a great shape! If you adopt a crash diet, and suddenly cut your food intake dramatically, your body may assume there’s a famine on the way and start saving your fat stores by burning muscle instead.

Avoid muscle loss
The reason that this is bad news is simple: you only want to lose fat! Since your muscles are the most efficient fat burning machine in the body, why would you want to shrink them? During crash dieting you are likely to lose 1lb of muscle for every 1lb of fat.

Metabolism
Your body is smarter than you think and in times of potential famine, it will slow down metabolism in order to avoid starvation. Now that your lean mass is considerably reduced, so is your basal metabolic rate (BMR - the energy required to simply make you tick over) and you can survive on less food than before. Therefore the body has successfully adapted itself to require fewer calories, allowing it to maintain its stores of fat and avoid potential starvation for longer. The more calories that are restricted, the more the body will cling to its fat stores, and metabolism will slow further. As metabolism slows, so does your ability to operate at normal levels. Exercise becomes difficult and general lethargy sets in.

Normal eating
The diet will inevitably come to an end, and you will begin to eat normally once again. But, because you have considerably reduced your BMR, your calorie requirement is less than before. Returning to your previous eating habits will now create a larger energy surplus than before you started the diet. For this reason people pile on the pounds very quickly. It’s the start of the damaging cycle that is symptomatic of crash dieting.

The moral of the story?

Take it easy on the roast potatoes this Christmas,

And get back to your normal dietary and exercise habits ASAP!

For more help with your nutrition find us at www.insideoutraining.co.uk