Why Fad Diets are not Designed for Long-Term Use

Fad diets are generally popular with people looking to shed a few pounds because they help you to lose weight extremely quickly. The only way of achieving rapid weight loss is by reducing your calorie intake to a low level, so that you build up a substantial calorie deficit. Fad diets enable you to do this because they usually require you to concentrate on eating very low-calorie foods whilst avoiding other more calorific foods. Unfortunately, these types of diet often lack balance, so that you find yourself missing out on vital nutrients which keep your body healthy.

Fad diets are therefore not designed for long-term use. Your health can suffer when you're not eating properly. If you aren't getting enough energy it can be difficult to concentrate, you may find yourself feeling dizzy and constantly tired, whilst picking up coughs and colds all the time. Clearly, if you are not feeling like your normal self, eventually you will have to abandon your diet and the chances are you will go back to your former eating habits. These are the habits which caused you to pile on the pounds and so, generally, you end up consuming too many calories.

You spend all that time on a diet in an attempt to lose weight only to gain it back within the course of a few weeks or months. It seems like such a waste of time and it doesn't do your self-esteem any good. Plus, you can find it harder to lose weight in the future when your body has to contend with being starved of food and then being fed too much food. It messes with your metabolism and finding the willpower to lose weight becomes more difficult each time you realise that you've put on too much weight and need to do something about it.

Fad diets clearly are not a long-term solution to a weight problem when they are designed for the sole purpose of promoting rapid weight loss. Fad diets become popular for a short period of time because of the buzz that surrounds them. You hear of people achieving weight-loss success on a particular diet, so you decide to give it a go. What you don't hear is that the majority of these people regain all the weight they lost and maybe even a few additional pounds to boot. By that time, the creators of such diets have made their fortune, whilst you're left blaming yourself for letting your weight get out of control again.

The reality, however, is that these diets are not meant to be followed for a long period of time and so your mind and body is bound to retaliate when you're eating a very restrictive diet and not consuming enough food. The only way to achieve long-term weight loss is to acknowledge the fact that your habits have to change and that fad diets are not the answer to a weight problem, so that you can then take sensible steps to actually control your weight.