Diet means food and drinks consumed regularly in a systematic manner. When crash diets restrict a person from eating, factually it cannot be termed as diet. Rather, crash diets can be termed as some random practices to lose weight in an unhealthy manner. In a more practical sense, crash diets have more negative side effects than good results. Also, remember, none of your favourite fitness influencers and sports personalities would have tried crash diets. All they follow is discipline, consistency, and a hard-working attitude to reach that level of fitness. If you are planning to go on a crash diet, consider reading this article.
Hair fall and premature ageing:
When you don’t consume enough macro and micro-nutrients, your body already lacks the required nutrients to carry on the daily task. When there is a scarcity of nutrients, there will be no proper nourishment given to skin and hair resulting in heavy hair loss/hair fall. You may have brittle nails, unhealthy skin, sagging skin, and look more aged than usual.
Prone to worst side-effects:
Your goal was to lose weight and to weigh less on the weighing scale, but your goal wasn’t to lose the unhealthy culprit, fat. So, it is true that you lose weight initially, but that loss comes from losing lean muscle mass, water and lean body mass, meaning that your organs and muscles shrink, your bones lose strength, making you weigh lighter. Technically, losing weight in such a manner is not advisable as this can be extremely dangerous leading to other issues like fractures even with tiredness, giddiness, etc.
Your body stores more fat:
Every food we eat contains macronutrients that can be classified into three categories, namely protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Among the above said three nutrients, fat is used as a fuel source and the major store of energy in our body. When you go on crash diets, your body needs energy even to stay awake, and naturally starts converting anything that comes in as fat, rather than helping in the development of other organs. Thus, you will store more fat while you already lose muscle, which is super-dangerous for anyone’s health regardless of the physical activity they do and their age.
You will gain all the lost weight:
Yes, though your weight drops drastically, you are going to gain back all the weight loss or even higher when you come back to your normal life. The scientific reason behind this is the swift changes in our metabolism and hormones. When you starve yourself going on a crash diet, your metabolism drops down meaning that your body burns fewer calories. Also, hormones are the major elements that control our feelings and emotions. They command our body to store more fat and to burn less. When you continue your crash diets for a month, it becomes accustomed in such a manner to store more and burn less. Thus, even if you wish to come back to your original life, the metabolism and hormones cannot change immediately, making you store more fat and gain more weight. Ultimately, this is proof that crash diets can never be sustainable.
You Dehydrate:
Initially, when the body is out of food and requires energy, it starts burning glycogen, which is again a complex structure of glucose. When glycogen levels are depleted, you will not be able to work out properly, think and make decisions, and cannot even carry out your regular tasks. Also, water is attached to every gram of glycogen, so you will lose water when you go on a crash diet. Thus, prolonged starvation and crash diets can lead to dehydration and you will feel more dizzy, thirsty, fatigued, even depressed.
Final Words:
It is evident from the above article that there are much more disadvantages than the number of advantages in crash diets. It is not at all a good idea to starve and lose weight. Even if you do so, you will have to face the consequences later in your life. It is better to consult with a nutritionist or a professional fitness coach before indulging in any sort of workout program or even diet regime to get the optimal benefits.
