It is remarkable just how many people seem to think that extreme diets are the best way to achieve weight loss, when this is generally not the case. It seems that the prospect of losing huge amounts of weight within a couple of months or so interferes with people's ability to think rationally. Sure, if you're living on a diet that consists of drinking lemonade three times a day, how can you not lose weight?! The trouble is that you will also find that such a restrictive diet has negative effects on both your physical and mental well-being.
When you follow an extreme diet plan, you usually take on board so few calories that you have very little energy to do anything. This can make you irritable and depressed, which makes it hard for you to socialise and lead your normal, everyday life. It may be a struggle to concentrate on anything other than the fact that you're hungry and want food, which could affect your work. Physically, you feel permanently exhausted and hungry. You may become more susceptible to bugs that are going around the office, since you are not providing your body with enough fuel to fight off infection.
With so many drawbacks associated with going on an extreme diet, you have to wonder why on earth people would put themselves through such an ordeal in the first place. Clearly, if you're substantially overweight and are desperate to kick-start your weight loss, you may be inclined to choose a diet which seems to offer you the chance to lose large quantities of weight quickly. The trouble is that these types of diet do not help you in the long term, as you usually go back to eating your normal diet, which means that any weight you lost tends to make a return. You go through all the hassle of virtually starving yourself only to end up just as heavy as before.
Mind you, it is not as if there is a shortage of extreme diets to choose from. What they have in common is a focus on getting you to eat only certain types of food, whilst removing others completely from your diet. Instead of getting you used to calorie counting, you come to believe that you can only eat the foods prescribed by the diet plan and that if you break from the diet your weight-loss attempts will be doomed to failure. However, weight loss will always be possible as long as you consume fewer calories than you burn. You don't need to go on an extreme diet to reduce your calorie intake, and you definitely don't have to deny yourself anything.
Surely, it is better to get used to eating a little of what you love – especially when what you love is particularly calorific – and learning to judge your calorie requirements, rather than resorting to extreme diets which basically set you up for failure. Extreme diets are only a short-term fix, as they get you to drastically reduce your calorie intake, but you can't live on such a boring and restrictive diet forever. As soon as your weight loss slows and the temptation to gorge on junk food becomes too overwhelming, you will find yourself right back at square one. Thus, you may as well eschew extreme diets from the very beginning and concentrate on getting your eating habits right, instead.
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