Yes Your Diet CAN Make You Fat

 

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Recently much speculation has been given to the idea that diets that are intended to help us shed unwanted pounds are actually having the opposite effect. Dieting is actually contributing to our weight loss problem rather than getting rid of it. This is primarily due to the failure rate of fad or “yo-yo” dieting. Though dieting might show results in the short term, over time dieters usually gain back all of the weight that they worked so hard to take off. And often they end up weighing more than they did before they started the diet.

The problem is when we skip meals or resort to starvation our metabolism will slow down. This means we need to consume fewer calories to maintain our current weight. Though this seems unfair it is actually our body’s primary defense mode against starvation and proved very helpful when human hunted or gathered their own food. When we had no idea where are next meal was coming from this survival mode was essential.

Currently however, we have our food readily available to us. Our bodies have little actual need to protect themselves from famine, but when we attempt to lower our caloric intake nature kicks in.

When dieting proves to be unsuccessful we are often disappointed and frustrated. To help deal with the stress of our failed diet attempts many people turn to food for comfort. St this point not only did the diet not provide the results we were looking for, but now we are piling on additional pounds by giving in to emotional hunger.

Researchers at UCLA conducted a survey of 116 women that had recently dieted or were dieting. Eighty-six percent of the women reported feeling overly anxious or stressed out about their dieting efforts. The study further indicated that many of these women were unsuccessful in their weight loss attempts because their dieting was undermined by their stress levels created by the diet itself.

The British Dietetic Association asked 4000 people to participate in a study directly related to the success of diets. Their results further proved that dieting can often make you fat. Of the 4000 participants 20 percent said they dieted for a month at a time, and 25 percent of those people said that they got bored with their diets and resorted to normal eating habits. However, because their metabolic rate had already been slowed eating normally actually caused them to gain weight. 33 percent of the participants ended up heavier than they started, while 36 percent returned to their normal weight within two weeks.

Unfortunately most studies that are not focused on the long term effects of dieting. Although most dieters can attribute to the fact that dieting has in many cases added to their weight loss issues, very few tests follow dieters for more than 12 months.

However, it has been seen time and time again that dieting by restricting your food intake will probably result in the opposite affect than the desired goal. Once you have stopped dieting you will more than likely gain back the weight you have lost and possibly add additional unwanted weight to your body, making you heavier than before you began.

Though fad diets are not the answer this does not mean we should give up on the idea of losing weight. A more effective and permanent approach can be taken. This involves a change of lifestyle rather that just a few weeks of deprivation. You should make efforts to start a regular workout routine and then maximize your results by eating healthy. You should avoid starvation diets that require you skip meals or avoid one particular food group. Instead enjoy a healthy, balanced diet and compliment with a daily workout routine.