Found the latest diet craze ?
Most of us have had at least one “ohmygod” moment when looking in the mirror. You may be absolutely positive that your butt was not that large yesterday and surely your stomach is twice the size it was last week, right?
Once you get over the moment of shock, you begin thinking back to the brownie you had last night, the fast food you've been grabbing at lunchtime and all the soda you've been drinking lately. Gee, it starts to be pretty obvious as to why you have gained so much weight, doesn't it?
If you are like most people, this “ohmygod” moment leads to the resolution to do away with junk food and to go on a diet immediately to lose the extra pounds. You run to the latest magazine or search the internet for the latest diet craze because you know you want this weight gone fast. Ah, there's one that sounds great...it says you will lose ten pounds in two weeks – perfect!
Wrong! The problem with these latest craze diets is often that they rely on losing water weight to enable the instant weight loss that gets everyone talking about how wonderful the diet is. What they fail to mention is that when you lose water weight, it is only a temporary loss. As soon as you start drinking more, that weight comes right back. Your body is made up of a large percentage of fluid and that's the way it is supposed to be. What you want to do is to lose body fat, not fluids.
These craze diets that don't rely upon fluid loss are still a bad idea. When you lose weight too rapidly, it is because the body is burning off lean muscle tissue, not fat. If the diet severely restricts calories, your body instinctively goes into starvation mode. Your metabolism slows down and the body conserves the fat cells as that is what the body burns for energy every day. Instead of losing fat, the body starts burning muscle tissue.
This turns into a cycle that can do even more damage to any weight loss goals. Since muscle tissue burns more calories than fat tissues, metabolism is faster and more efficient when there is a large percentage of lean muscle. When you follow a craze diet, your body loses this lean muscle first. Your metabolism will automatically slow and therefore your weight loss becomes slower, as well. Since muscle tissue weighs more than fat, you often think the diet is working at first. So did all those people that were saying how great the diet is – they just don't tell you what happens later.
Instead of going into panic mode the next time you get an “ohmygod” moment, stop and think about the sensible way to lose those extra pounds. You must take in enough calories to have the body functioning at its best. The real key is to burn more calories than you take in. Obviously, the faster your metabolism is running then the more calories are burned each day.
It's much better to work on building lean muscle tissue since we know that muscle burns more calories. Diets based on this principle will help you lose weight and keep the weight off, instead of gaining it back twice as fast. So the next time you look for a diet after not liking what you see in the mirror, keep this in mind and avoid these craze diets.
