| With crash dieting you may well lose 6 pounds in | | | | deficiency anemia, vitamin B12 or potassium and |
| one week and think you're on the way to fitting | | | | sodium deficiency. The latter two play an |
| into that bikini. Well, you haven't really lost that | | | | important role in regulating the way that your |
| much fat. You've mostly lost water. As you | | | | heart beats. If their levels become too low, you |
| reduced your carbohydrate intake, you reduced | | | | could have a heart attack. |
| your body's supply of glycogen and eliminated | | | | Long-term crash dieters frequently suffer from |
| some of its water. A large proportion of the fat is | | | | osteoporosis. Crash diets severely limit calcium |
| still there. Resume eating normally, and you'll regain | | | | intake. As a result, calcium leaches out of the |
| the water weight. | | | | bones in your body, making them brittle. As a |
| Nutritionists recommend a minimum daily intake of | | | | result, many crash dieters suffer broken hips, |
| 1200 calories. When you drastically reduce this | | | | wrists and other bones. You may lose your hair, |
| number or stop eating, you deprive your body of | | | | have brittle nails or your flesh may become grey. |
| vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins and nutrients | | | | Your hair loss could continue as long as six |
| that it needs to sustain itself. While low-fat diets | | | | months after you resume eating normally again. |
| may be ok, a fat free diet is not. Your body | | | | What about the psychology involved in crash |
| requires 30% of your daily calories to be from | | | | diets? Let's stick with bikini season. It is our |
| fats. If it doesn't get the nutrition it needs, your | | | | motivation to lose weight quickly. You buy the |
| body reacts by becoming more efficient at | | | | tiny bikini, tell yourself that you'll fit into it by the |
| storing fat. Your metabolism slows down to | | | | beginning of summer, hang it up where you can |
| conserve what little nutrition it's getting. When you | | | | see it as a reminder of what you're working |
| start eating again, the body continues to conserve | | | | towards, and reduce or stop eating. Everything |
| energy for quite some time. As you eat more | | | | should work out as planned, but it usually doesn't. |
| food, you will gain weight at a faster rate. | | | | Why? |
| Drastically reducing or stopping eating puts you at | | | | We are creatures of habit. We like our routines, |
| risk. Crash diets are extremely dangerous for | | | | especially when it comes to food. Trying to |
| your heart, kidneys, liver, and brain because you | | | | suddenly adopt a new, stricter diet is hard |
| lose lean tissue around them. If you don't eat | | | | because it is not part of our routine. It may be |
| enough, your body will actually burn the muscle | | | | too different for us to adapt to it. If we can see |
| tissue of the organs themselves to provide your | | | | instant results, then we'll have more impetus to |
| brain with sufficient energy to function. This puts | | | | stick to the diet. If we don't see the results we |
| you at risk for liver and kidney failure, heart | | | | expected, most of us would simply put the bikini |
| attack and stroke and even death. Crash diets | | | | in the bottom of the drawer and go back to our |
| cause extreme food cravings, causing you to gain | | | | normal routines. Like it or not, we can't change |
| weight. You may become dizzy or uncoordinated. | | | | our eating habits overnight. Crash diets, moreover, |
| You will probably sleep more as your body | | | | may make you feel irritable, depressed or lead to |
| conserves energy. You may develop iron | | | | eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. |