The dieting industry might be healthy, but dieting itself is not. Diets typically promote quick weight loss rather than losing pounds at a slow, steady pace. They often dictate poor or inadequate food choices, which can have long-term consequences for your health. A better option is to eat a variety of nourishing foods in moderately-sized portions.
Diet For Life
Diets seldom work over time. They require restricting the amount of food you typically eat or eating foods you don't like or don't find satisfying. When you stop dieting and return to your old habits, you gain the weight back. Diets often come with a list of ''forbidden foods,'' which encourages binging. When you finally allow yourself the "forbidden treat," it's tempting to overindulge. But the biggest problem with dieting is what it doesn't do. You don't learn how to eat healthy meals and snacks over a lifetime, and that's a key to successful weight control.
Diets Slow Metabolism
Losing weight occurs through a calorie deficit: You must burn more than you take in each day. When you diet, your body reacts by slowing your metabolism. That means you burn fewer calories each day to maintain your body functions. Dieting without exercising also means loss of lean muscle mass. Muscle tissue burns calories faster than fat tissue. With less muscle, you'll need to restrict calorie intake even more to lose weight.
Yo-Yo Dieting
Habitual dieters find themselves in an unhealthy cycle of losing weight only to gain the pounds back, plus a few more. This is known as yo-yo dieting. Wide swings in body weight are stressful on your body. A 2004 study by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle found that losing and regaining weight over and over can damage the immune system. This affects your body's ability to fight infection and disease.
Fad Dieting
Many diets are unhealthy or even harmful. They lack the essential nutrients necessary to keep you healthy and feeling good. Fad diets are often expensive or overly restrictive or both. Since food is a part of the social fabric, denying yourself pleasure during meals and social occasions can result in feelings of anger, deprivation and isolation. These may be the same feelings that started you on your path to overeating in the first place.
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