Any weight loss needs to be controlled and part of a planned diet and exercise regime. You shouldn’t make any kind of drastic change without consulting a doctor, and/or a nutritional expert to find out what kind of diet is best for you. Often they are going to talk to you more about lifestyle change than something that you change for the short term to get fast results.
Some people, when they decide that they want to lose weight, will go all out and not think about the health consequences of just cutting out whole swathes of food that they had in their diet.
You still need to be taking in the basic nutrients that the body needs to keep functioning properly, and you may immediately start to feel bad from the effect of the diet. A diet that has such a harsh effect is going to be hard to stick to, and your chances of success aren’t going to be so good. Speak to an expert to make sure any diet is going to be healthy for you.
The last thing you want to do is start burning your muscle mass. Depending on how fast you start to shed those pounds though, it may not be the fat that you are targeting – it may be that muscle mass which you are actually looking to build.
A diet where you cut out lots of things may force your body to burn that muscle for energy. This not only affects the muscles you may have been working to build, but it can also have a negative effect on your metabolism, slowing it down drastically. This is because muscle is more metabolically active and therefore burns more calories than fat.
Low carb and no-carb diets make you more prone to losing a lot of water weight, but this can be pretty hazardous to your health.
There is a lot of talk about staying properly hydrated, and some of these diets seem to fly in the face of that.
If you have ever been badly dehydrated you know it is unpleasant. You can suffer constipation, headache, muscle cramps, and low energy. It can get a lot more serious than that though, so the best solution is to find a diet that has hydration built into it. Water can actually help you lose weight if used as part of a structured plan of weight loss and healthy living.
A big reason for making sure that weight loss is part of a structured regime of exercise and diet is that the whole way of thinking entailed in some fad diets is wrong. You are encouraged to drastically change the way you work with the body for a short period of time, and then you return to your old practices without having made a lifestyle change to promote continued good health.
Unrealistic expectations and no long term plan for maintaining a healthy lifestyle can start to make you feel really bad about yourself and can be early steps towards developing bad psychological conditions such as body dysmorphia, or eating disorders.
Conclusion
There are plenty of ways in which you can promote healthy weight loss. The first thing to do is speak to someone, such as a nutrition professional, who can help you to work out a good dietary and exercise plan for you. Understanding how the diet is going to work, and having realistic expectations is also important. If you feel bad about what you are eating, stop and seek advice.