Weight loss can seem hard so you would be forgiven for opting for a quick fad diet but how often have these quick fixes failed? The four most common barriers to maintained weight loss reported in a study was mental distress, hedonic hunger, binge eating and demoralization.
These factors are almost inevitable for any fad diet you try. Fad diets are often associated with severe restriction of energy or elimination of entire food groups which satisfy your body’s needs. This causes mental distress from being excessively hungry and causes you to binge from mental exhaustion of restriction. You are not blamed for these behaviors as fad diets set you up to fail.
Quick weight loss can make you feel good. Sad news is this is often water weight as every gram of glucose or glycogen stored in your muscles and cells is paired with 2-3g of water. The quick drop in weight can often slow after the first few weeks and this can feel like failure. What is happening is your body goes into ‘starvation mode’ because you are not giving it enough fuel to function. Your metabolism slows and your activity over a day may become less because of lack of energy. This lack of weight loss can lead you to quit the diet from feeling of failure and demoralization.
On top of this weight lost is often regained and then some additional fat mass. Often your muscle is used as a fuel source by your body when you are severely energy restricted especially if your diet is lacking enough protein. Muscle is metabolically active, helps you to be more active in life and helps you maintain a healthy weight.
The additional fat you regain may be centered around your belly. This type of fat is called visceral fat. Visceral fat is the most dangerous as too much fat around your organs can increase your risk of many organ-based diseases from kidney to heart disease.
You can see this yoyo style of dieting is mentally demoralizing. The bad news doesn’t end there because every time you go on a yoyo diet and it does not work your insulin sensitivity decreases and blood pressure increases. This can put you at risk of a heart attack or stroke.
Take home message: You may want to think twice about the quick fix, fad diet. Not only because it is setting you up to fail because these diets are often unsustainable but can lead you to increased risk of chronic disease. For safe, effective and long-term weight loss see an Accredited Practising Dietitian who can tailor a diet to meet your individual needs.
Reference:
- Fischer M, Oberander N, Weimann A. Four main barriers to weight loss maintenance? A quantitative analysis of difficulties experienced by obese patients after successful weight reduction. European journal of clinical nutrition. 2020.
