Psychological Effects Of Fad Diets

Fad diets are weight loss programs that typically promise instant results. They tend to identify one type of food or drink as being the key to weight loss and center the diet around that. Examples of fad diets include the all-cabbage diet, high protein diets and liquid diets. Such diets can have an impact on you psychologically, as well as physically. Always consult your doctor before going on any type of diet.

Stress

All diets involve a change in your eating habits. These changes may involve a reduction in, or complete elimination of, certain types of foods, such as those high in fat or carbohydrates. The psychological effects of diets in mice was the focus of a study included in the December 2010 issue of "The Journal of Neuroscience." In this study, researchers found that diets that restricted calories and fat intake caused stress levels to become significantly elevated after 3 weeks. In addition, when exposed to stress, mice engaged in binge eating behavior. These findings suggest that the stress caused by highly restrictive diets increases binge eating which is counterproductive to weight loss.

Eating Disorders

Binge eating involves the consumption of a large amount of food in a short amount of time. It is typically done in private and may be immediately followed by purging to avoid weight gain. Another way to compensate for binges is by going on fad diets. According to Epigee.org, the majority of binge eaters spend years on different fad diets which may contribute to the development of eating disorders. The "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision" defines eating disorders as extreme disturbances in eating behavior and body image perceptions, specifically body weight and shape.

Depression

The sensational claims associated with fad diets may lead you to believe that weight loss is quick and easy. Such statements give a false sense of hope and may cause you to set unattainable goals. Therefore, it can be a psychological letdown if you fail to lose weight as quickly as you anticipated or if you are unable to shed the number of pounds you hoped to. In addition, fad diets that exclude or severely limit the amount of complex carbohydrates or essential fats you consume can lead to changes in mood, especially depression which is significantly influenced by diet, according to the Mental Health Foundation.

Helplessness

Psychologist Martin Seligman termed the phrase "learned helplessness" in 1967 to describe situations in which people feel helpless despite their ability to take control of it. If you try a few fad diets and they do not provide you with the results you anticipated, you may come to perceive your inability to lose weight as helplessness. In fact, researchers Janet Polivy et al. found that unsuccessful diets causes feelings of failure and helplessness which lower self-esteem. Although fad diets may let you down, there are many tried and true weight loss plans that have been in existence for years that might work for you.