5 DISASTER DIETS THAT RUIN YOUR FITNESS GOALS
In today’s world, it often seems like everyone is dieting. People are always raving about some new diet trend that everybody needs to try out. Sadly, though, a lot of the diets that get popular are ridiculously unhealthy; many even require you to borderline starve yourself. With a lot of them, you’re probably not going to lose weight. On the ones that do cause you to lose weight, you typically gain it back rather quickly once you come off the diet.
The key to a nutritious life really isn’t to diet. Instead, it’s to change your lifestyle to make it healthier and more active. And even though most people know that’s true, they still love to jump on the “diet bandwagon.” Don’t be one of those people! And, if you are considering a diet, make sure it’s not one of the 5 diets listed below.
Diet Disaster #1: The Raw Food Diet
People love things that are trendy, and the raw food diet certainly fits the bill. It operates under the belief that everyone should eat completely raw, natural foods since they demand less enzyme production from the body, keep all food nutrients intact, and make it harder for foods to turn into fat.
Some of those things are true, and it’s certainly true that raw fruits and veggies are good for you. However, you really need other foods in your diet, such as meat or other protein sources, for it to be healthy.
There’s also the fact that a raw diet really isn’t easy to stick to. Everyone cooks food, and everywhere you go, there is cooked food, so turning your nose up at every meal to munch on carrot sticks isn’t really easy or plausible for most people.
Diet Disaster #2: The Cabbage Soup Diet
The Cabbage Soup Diet has been floating around since the 1980s, possibly even before then, and it’s pretty hard to trace its roots, which is never a good sign. The diet’s basic premise is that you can lose weight eating as much low calorie cabbage soup (there’s a highly specific recipe involved) as you want.
The recipe for the soup contains lots of veggies (and sodium!) and basically no protein. On some days, you’re allowed to mix the soup with fruits. On others, you’re given vegetables. Some days, you’re only allowed bananas and skim milk. There is one day, however, where you get some steak. There’s really no rhyme or reason to it, making this diet seem like something somebody just plain made up.
And, while it is true that you could lose weight by only eating this super low calorie soup, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to hack it for more than a day or two. That soup gets pretty disgusting after a while. Plus, you’ll be too drained of protein and other important nutrients to hit the gym while you’re doing the diet.
In short, this diet is a “quick fix” that often fails and doesn’t teach healthy lifestyle habits, making it one of the 5 diets you should definitely avoid.
Diet Disaster #3: The Master Cleanse
This diet got ridiculously popular after celebrities started doing it, but just because famous people do something doesn’t make it a good idea! And, to be honest, the master cleanse is certainly not a good idea.
This diet consists of mixing together lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper...and then having only that for several days. The only other additions include a laxative tea and some salt water. Talk about gross!
There is virtually no nutritional benefit to this diet, meaning your body will starve and lose lean muscle. Plus, your body will be so nutritionally depleted that, once you come off the diet, it will store absolutely every bite that you eat as fat, which is the exact opposite of what you want.
In short, don’t do it! You’ll be too weak and drained to hit the gym or to do much of anything for days.
Diet Disaster #4: The Slim-Fast Diet
If you’ve ever been in a supermarket, then you’ve probably seen those cans of Slim-Fast shakes. They are designed to help people lose weight as quickly as possible. To follow the slim-fast diet, you simply replace two meals a day with the weight loss shakes and enjoy a healthy dinner.
Unfortunately, though, the shakes are loaded with sugar, which isn’t good for overall health. Plus, many people end up binging big time at dinner because they’re so starved from only sipping shakes all day. This, of course, is counterproductive to losing weight.
And, while some may be able to stick to the Slim-Fast plan, it’s certainly not easy, nor is it particularly good for your body.
Diet Disaster #5: The Lunar Diet
The Lunar Diet is....um...weird, to say the least. This diet relies on the lunar calendar and requires a lot of fasting. The short of it is that you eat what you want and then fast. It’s a type of intermittent fasting...but also a cycle of binging and then “purging” through restriction, which is basically a recipe for an eating disorder.
Furthermore, this constant cycle of restriction and overindulging is an easy way to put on weight since your body will enter into starvation mode when you fast, causing it to hang onto and store as fat every calorie you consume in your binging phase.
Plus, the cycles of the moon really don’t have anything to do with how much you should eat, as the diet purports. It’s basically a bunch of unhealthy nonsense that you should avoid.
At the end of the day, the key to losing weight is to eat a healthy, balanced diet and, through exercise, to burn off more calories than you consume. That’s truly it. There’s no need to follow some fad diet to see results. Just focus on being healthier and exercising more, and you should see weight loss...without resorting to the crazy extremes that these 5 diets ask of you.
People love things that are trendy, and the raw food diet certainly fits the bill. It operates under the belief that everyone should eat completely raw, natural foods since they demand less enzyme production from the body, keep all food nutrients intact, and make it harder for foods to turn into fat.
Some of those things are true, and it’s certainly true that raw fruits and veggies are good for you. However, you really need other foods in your diet, such as meat or other protein sources, for it to be healthy.
There’s also the fact that a raw diet really isn’t easy to stick to. Everyone cooks food, and everywhere you go, there is cooked food, so turning your nose up at every meal to munch on carrot sticks isn’t really easy or plausible for most people.
Diet Disaster #2: The Cabbage Soup Diet
The Cabbage Soup Diet has been floating around since the 1980s, possibly even before then, and it’s pretty hard to trace its roots, which is never a good sign. The diet’s basic premise is that you can lose weight eating as much low calorie cabbage soup (there’s a highly specific recipe involved) as you want.
The recipe for the soup contains lots of veggies (and sodium!) and basically no protein. On some days, you’re allowed to mix the soup with fruits. On others, you’re given vegetables. Some days, you’re only allowed bananas and skim milk. There is one day, however, where you get some steak. There’s really no rhyme or reason to it, making this diet seem like something somebody just plain made up.
And, while it is true that you could lose weight by only eating this super low calorie soup, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to hack it for more than a day or two. That soup gets pretty disgusting after a while. Plus, you’ll be too drained of protein and other important nutrients to hit the gym while you’re doing the diet.
In short, this diet is a “quick fix” that often fails and doesn’t teach healthy lifestyle habits, making it one of the 5 diets you should definitely avoid.
Diet Disaster #3: The Master Cleanse
This diet got ridiculously popular after celebrities started doing it, but just because famous people do something doesn’t make it a good idea! And, to be honest, the master cleanse is certainly not a good idea.
This diet consists of mixing together lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper...and then having only that for several days. The only other additions include a laxative tea and some salt water. Talk about gross!
There is virtually no nutritional benefit to this diet, meaning your body will starve and lose lean muscle. Plus, your body will be so nutritionally depleted that, once you come off the diet, it will store absolutely every bite that you eat as fat, which is the exact opposite of what you want.
In short, don’t do it! You’ll be too weak and drained to hit the gym or to do much of anything for days.
Diet Disaster #4: The Slim-Fast Diet
If you’ve ever been in a supermarket, then you’ve probably seen those cans of Slim-Fast shakes. They are designed to help people lose weight as quickly as possible. To follow the slim-fast diet, you simply replace two meals a day with the weight loss shakes and enjoy a healthy dinner.
Unfortunately, though, the shakes are loaded with sugar, which isn’t good for overall health. Plus, many people end up binging big time at dinner because they’re so starved from only sipping shakes all day. This, of course, is counterproductive to losing weight.
And, while some may be able to stick to the Slim-Fast plan, it’s certainly not easy, nor is it particularly good for your body.
Diet Disaster #5: The Lunar Diet
The Lunar Diet is....um...weird, to say the least. This diet relies on the lunar calendar and requires a lot of fasting. The short of it is that you eat what you want and then fast. It’s a type of intermittent fasting...but also a cycle of binging and then “purging” through restriction, which is basically a recipe for an eating disorder.
Furthermore, this constant cycle of restriction and overindulging is an easy way to put on weight since your body will enter into starvation mode when you fast, causing it to hang onto and store as fat every calorie you consume in your binging phase.
Plus, the cycles of the moon really don’t have anything to do with how much you should eat, as the diet purports. It’s basically a bunch of unhealthy nonsense that you should avoid.
At the end of the day, the key to losing weight is to eat a healthy, balanced diet and, through exercise, to burn off more calories than you consume. That’s truly it. There’s no need to follow some fad diet to see results. Just focus on being healthier and exercising more, and you should see weight loss...without resorting to the crazy extremes that these 5 diets ask of you.