In our modern, fast-paced world, we all want a quick-fix solution to everything, including weight loss. When you’re not losing weight and frustration takes over, it can be tempting to fall into the latest diet fad or stop eating altogether. These 5 unhealthy weight loss tips can help you get a clearer picture of why you should never use them to shed pounds, no matter how desperate you are.
5 Unhealthy Weight Loss Plans You Should Never Follow
- Starvation Diets
One of the worst ways to lose weight is the starvation diet. This means either living on lettuce and carrot sticks or buying into one of those “pre-packaged meal plans”. The only reason those celebrities are shedding pounds faster than you can shed clothes is because they’re depriving their bodies of essential nutrition.
You may lose weight this way but you’ll gain it all back and then some as soon as you give up the program. Why? Extreme calorie cutting puts your body into starvation mode. It slows your metabolism and tells your body to hang on to every bit of fat it can find. This is how these companies continue to make money. Eventually, the only way you can stay thin is to keep eating their food!
- Diet Foods
Speaking of unhealthy ways to lose weight, diet foods are the worst. Anything pre-packaged and loaded with chemicals, preservatives, and sweeteners is not going to help you lose weight. They may be low in calories but they’re also low in nutrition. Plus, the sugary additives, namely high fructose corn syrup, encourage your body to pack on the pounds.
- Diet Pills
Diet pills are another bad idea if you want to lose weight. Most diet pills come in two forms: Stimulants or fat blockers. Stimulants may give you more energy to work out but will make you feel so nervous and jittery; you won’t even want to eat. This puts your body into starvation mode and causes you to pack on the pounds double-time when you stop taking the stimulants. Fat blockers prevent your body from absorbing necessary nutrients and have some ugly side effects associated with them including uncontrollable diarrhea.
- HCG Diet
I can’t even believe this one is legal. The HCG diet is by far, the worst possible way to lose weight. This diet demands you only consume 500 calories per day while taking an injection of hormones produced by pregnant women to control your natural hunger pangs. Sure, the weight may drop off but you may drop dead in the process.
Side effects of the HCG diet include irritability, light-headedness, tremors, headaches, constipation, rash, leg cramps, blood clots, ovarian-hyper stimulation syndrome (which can kill you), edema, prostate hypertrophy, hair loss, breast growth in men, and multiple pregnancies, just to name a few.
The long and short of it is this: Even if you manage to avoid every single side effect the HCG diet has to offer and you do shed pounds without killing anyone out of sheer desperation for nourishment, your body will still go into extreme starvation mode and the moment you touch an ounce of fat again, it will go straight to your hips and every other nutrient-starved portion of your wasting body.
As you can see, in my opinion, this diet isn’t a good idea.
- Excessive Exercise
There’s nothing wrong with exercise. In order to lose weight, your body needs to burn more calories than it takes in. However, you can overdue exercise. Working out too much can cause dehydration, pain, and injury. Excessive exercise can also create a problem if it’s combined with any type of starvation diet. This can take a toll on your heart and circulatory system and can lead to heart attack or stroke. When you’re working out regularly, there’s no need to cut calories in the extreme and vice versa. Pace yourself and you’ll get better, healthier results.
No matter how many pounds you’re looking to lose, unhealthy weight loss plans do nothing to help your body and only work in the short term. Maintaining a healthy weight is a cornerstone of men’s and women’s health. The best way to lose weight is to avoid diet food and pills altogether and combine a whole-food diet with regular exercise. Feeding your body plenty of organic vegetables, fruit, lean proteins, fish, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and healthy fats are your best bet to lose weight without losing yourself!
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