Ten Reasons Not To Diet

Everybody eats a diet of one kind or another, but when we talk of dieting it usually refers to the process of losing weight through eliminating certain food groups from your diet or concentrating on eating particular foods. This is not a particularly healthy way to approach weight loss, but many people get sucked in by the thought of losing vast amounts of weight in a short space of time, even though they know that the reality is that either they won't ever get down to their target weight or else they will most probably put the weight they lose back on. Indeed, there are at least 10 reasons not to diet.

1. Dieting means following a restrictive eating plan, which means you simply end up thinking about all the foods you are not allowed to eat. Some fad diets involve eating only one type of food, such as in the case of the cabbage soup diet, which means you won't be getting all the nutrients your body needs.

2. Connected with not getting enough nutrients is the fact that you will have very low energy levels, which is particularly unhelpful when you are trying to lose weight, since as well as cutting down on the calories you consume you should also be incorporating more exercise into your routine. If you don't have the energy to exercise you are likely to put off doing any, and may find yourself snacking on high-calorie junk food instead

3. Because you won't have much energy the chances are you will be extremely irritable and are therefore more likely to snap at people who haven't done anything to deserve it. Consequently being on a diet makes you less sociable, and people may be less willing to spend time with you.

4. You may also find it difficult to sleep when you are on a diet, particularly if you go to bed hungry.

5. Dieting can affect your metabolism as if you are consuming too few calories your body will go into starvation mode, and when you return to your normal eating patterns it will do everything in its power to hold on to the energy it is being provided with.

6. You also need to consider why you are dieting in the first place since you might think that being ultra-slim will make you feel better about yourself, but this is not necessarily the case. You might get a temporary boost to your self-esteem, but losing weight doesn't fundamentally change how you feel about yourself.

7. Indeed, thinking that losing weight is going to be the solution to all your problems increases the chance that you will put off living life to the fullest until you lose some weight, which clearly doesn't benefit you, especially if you have always struggled with your weight.

8. In fact most people who follow diets end up yo-yo dieting, going from being heavy to being light many times throughout their lifetime, rather than stabilising and learning to control their weight.

9. Obviously yo-yo dieting isn't good for your health, and your body has to continually adjust to being given either too many or too few calories, playing havoc with your metabolism and making it harder to lose weight in the future.

10. On a more superficial level losing weight quickly by severely restricting your calorie intake can leave you with unsightly loose hanging skin, whilst your face may begin to show its age.

Clearly, then, there are few advantages to dieting, as in most cases it won't help you achieve your weight-loss goals, or will do so only temporarily. It can also damage your health by depriving your body of vital nutrients, as well as making you less fun to be around. Losing weight should involve getting fitter and healthier, and so you shouldn't simply try to lose as much weight as possible through dieting, since going on a diet will not help you achieve all of those aims.