What are 3 risks of extreme dieting?
The quick weight loss results you get after an extreme diet may just be that your body loses water as the real enemy, which is fat. This is a common side effect when you restrict carbohydrates or calories in your diet. When the body determines that you’re not eating enough calories, it goes into starvation mode and burns your carbohydrate stores for energy. For weight loss programs to be effective, dietary therapy must be combined with adequate physical activity.
An aggressive diet lowers basal metabolism, which means that less energy is burned at rest, resulting in a significantly lower daily requirement to maintain the weight achieved after the diet is completed. These diets, which usually promise quick and shocking results, are almost always difficult to stick to in real life without feeling sluggish, tired, and moody most of the time. Dieting means restricting, restricting enjoyable foods and drinks, and although they have no benefits, the omnipresent diet mentality is still the norm. Most diets, regardless of their particular type, result in short-term weight loss that is not sustainable.
In addition, weight fluctuations have been linked to an increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. Some diet plans recommend extreme carbohydrate intake without any fat restriction, while others do the opposite and place great emphasis on restricting fat. Extremely low-calorie liquid diets have been linked to ventricular arrhythmias and death, for example. Since a certain amount of fat is required for diets to be palatable, very low-fat diets are usually less palatable. These are vital food groups, and their lack in the diet can be the cause of numerous nutritional disorders.
However, on a low-calorie diet, the body is prone to imbalanced levels of leptin, which makes you feel hungrier than usual and is more likely to overeat at your next meal. Given the health risks associated with obesity and especially for cosmetic reasons, many people, particularly adolescents, have begun to resort to “extreme” weight loss diets in order to achieve rapid weight loss. While losing a lot of weight can be a huge achievement, extreme things you see in commercials and television, such as low-calorie diets and juice cleanses, can come with a long list of unexpected side effects and dangers in the long run. Instead of resorting to such extreme diets, the best way to correct obesity is through a balanced, healthy, nutritious and low-calorie diet combined with adequate physical activity (exercise).
The PURE study10 therefore does not support a significant reduction in fat intake and clearly points out the dangers of a high-carbohydrate diet. Dieting and chronic hunger tend to worsen dysfunctional behaviors, such as smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol.
