Why do People Usually End Up Heavier After Going on a Diet?

It might seem like a rather ridiculous idea that going on a diet could actually cause you to gain weight, but it is something that happens to many people. There are a number of reasons why you could end up heavier after going on a diet. Usually, the fad diets people choose to follow a very low in calories, almost guaranteeing that they will lose weight, but this certainly won't be the case if they don't stick to the diet! Even when people do stick to the diet, they usually stop following their diet plan rather abruptly and just go back to their normal diet, leading to weight gain.

The trouble is that when you go on a diet you have to be extra-vigilant about what you eat. You can't simply treat yourself to a chocolate, because you're so preoccupied with food and losing weight that you just feel guilty about it. If you give into a binge you feel pessimistic about your chances of losing weight and you may be inclined to simply abandon your diet. Having said that, there are some diets which are based on your ability to control your food intake. They tell you that you can eat as much as you like, automatically assuming you will know when to stop. If you don't, though, the end result is weight gain.

When people go on a diet, they usually see it as a short-term arrangement that will enable them to lose weight quickly so that they can go back to leading their normal lives before long. Unfortunately, when you adopt this mindset, you put all your effort into losing the weight, but then have no idea of how to keep the weight off. You're so pleased with yourself for reaching your goal weight that you allow yourself to indulge without beating yourself up about it. You've come off your diet and you deserve to eat something nice. That is what you tell yourself, anyway, but it may not be just a one-off and so you end up slipping back into your old routine.

After starving your body for a period of weeks or months, it is going to want to hold on to those extra calories and store them as fat. If you binge on junk food before returning to your normal way of doing things, it won't be long before you've regained any weight you lost. When you notice that your weight is creeping up, you may decide to avoid stepping on the scales, even though this usually means your weight will continue to spiral out of control.

If you don't know how bad the situation is, you can avoid dealing with it, but that isn't going to make the problem go away and you could actually end up heavier than before going on the diet. Consequently, it makes sense to avoid diets when trying to lose weight, as they may help you achieve rapid weight loss if you stick to them, but they do not prepare you for weight maintenance. Ultimately, it is a waste of time going on a diet if you're only going to end up even heavier when you go back to eating normally.