Fad Diets
“QIUCK & EASY”
What is a FAD diet?
A fad diet is a weight loss plan that promises quick and easy weight loss. The
problem with these diets is that they are short term diets, and are not very healthy. These
diets will make you gain the weight back as fast as you dropped it (if not quicker) when
you stop the diet. They also take a large toll on your body and will damage your health,
mood, energy levels etc. If these diets are so bad then why do people still try them and
use them? We love shortcuts and not having to work as hard as we should. That’s exactly
what these diets promise: quick and easy. We also want to look good, feel good, and are
afraid of future weight related diseases. Companies and businesses use this weakness to
their advantage and advertise their diet and make it promise those things. In reality they
are hurting us more for their own profit. If this sounds familiar, it should. Drug dealers do a
very similar thing with lying about the drug, the outcomes it will give, and the quick fix
the drug gives us with a lot more health issues down the road. The best option in weight
loss is not to take shortcuts and to make a long term change in your life. Changing your
lifestyle to a healthier lifestyle by exercising and eating properly will take some time, but
it is the right way to do it.
My Experience
The funny thing is that I knew all these facts about how bad diets are, but just like a
lot of other people I turned to one. The FAD diet that I will explore more deeply works very well
and does exactly what its meant to do. It will make you lose a lot of weight very fast in a short
period of time. The only set back is that it does horrors to the body and it is torture. So why did
I do this? Even though I knew this was going to happen; I was desperate for a fast weight loss
method. With some research and my previous knowledge on health, fitness, and cooking I found
a very effective diet. I even tweaked the diet to an extreme on my own to make it work better.
The reason I turned to this diet was because I had 6 days to my provincial fight and I was about 6
kilos over weight. I measured myself on the Monday before my competition and I found out I was
64 kilos when I had to be 59. If I didn't get into this weight category I wouldn't be able to fight,
so the options were give up or lose 6 kilos in 6 days. I took on the challenge and I succeeded! By
the Saturday when it was my weigh in day I had lost the 13 pounds I needed to loose. This diet is
very popular amongst sport coaches especially wrestling coaches and I call it the fruit and veggie
diet.
Fruit and Veggie diet
This diet could also be called fruit and
veggie + water diet, because those are pretty
much the only things you can consume. To be
honest the fastest way to lose weight is by
not eating anything, unfortunately I couldn't
do that for a week while going school and
exercising. The other option is to drop as
many food categories as possible. Ironically I
actually used the Canadian food guide to
make/tweak this diet.
Carbs (complex)
The first and biggest no would be all the complex
carbohydrates and starches. Anything with starch would be out, so
no rice, bread, pasta, cereal, etc. The reason for this is because
complex carbohydrates are hard for our body to break down so they
are broken down much more slowly or are stored as fat, and energy
reserves.
Fats & Meat
The next category to say no to are fats, and salts. No oil or food
with too much fat can enter the body, because obviously the fat and oil
would remain as fat and be stored. Unfortunately this means one can’t
have a lot of meat in their diet therefor one has to turn to protein drinks.
Protein drinks are a great source of protein and they have no known side
effects, but unfortunately they are meant as supplements. Supplements
are supposed to come with the other sources of protein like meat or nuts,
but they can’t be consumed either because nuts and meat have a lot of
fat. Although ideally I wasn’t meant to have any meat I did end up having
a few chicken breasts plain with no salt or oil. Even then I had to over
cook the chicken breast, so the fats and juices would evaporate before I
ate it. That was very dry and unpleasant experience.
Salt
Salt is one of the most important to say no to, because it can
make you gain the most weight. The salt by itself weighs almost
nothing, but what is does inside the body is that it makes us
maintain our moisture and water. As you may know up to 60 percent
of our body is water so it can weigh a lot, although not all of it can
be lost because a large portion makes up the cells in our body. The
rest of that water that can be lost should be lost and for that we
need no salt in the body to increase our weight.
Dairy
Although milk is always considered very
healthy because of its high calcium and
protein content, its not the best option for a
diet. Milk and other dairy products simply
contain too much fat. I suppose I could have
drank skimmed milk and 0% fat yogurt.
Unfortunately it never accrued to me. For
others skimmed milk is ok, because all the fat
is processed out. Milk is also a great solvent
for protein powder and it tastes much better
then water and protein powder.
Fruits
With this strict diet it seems as if you can’t have anything. The
only things you are allowed to have are fruits, veggies, herbs, and water.
We are actually lucky to be able to eat fruits. Fruits have a lot of sugar
there for I thought I couldn’t eat them at first, but with some research I
found out I could. The sugars in fruits are simple sugars or simple carbs.
This means our body can break them down and use them for energy almost
immediately. Therefor you shouldn't be afraid to have some for quick
energy and to fill you up. Fruits also have a lot of antioxidants, minerals,
and vitamins. Although fruit juice is not an option. A lot of fruit juice is
filled with unnatural sugars which are harder to break down, and have less
minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants than actual fruit. Even if the brand is
very dependable, and sais it is 100% real fruit juice, the fruit juice has
little to no fibre so the actual fruit is the better option to fill you up.
Vegetables
Vegetables have very little oil, fat,
sugar, salt, etc. Like fruits they have many
antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals so they
are very good for us. Vegetables a packed
with fibre so they fill you up easily and keep
you full for some time. There are thousands
of salads that could be made so you wont be
short on variety. Vegetables should ideally be
consumed raw but for variety they can be
cooked. It should be noted when they are
cooked, they lose a lot of their nutrients and
water.
Water
Water should be drunk a lot through this diet. The body is missing
some very important ingredients, water shouldn’t be one of them. If there
is vey little salt in the body the water will come out easily. More water in
our body can also make us lose a lot of stored water. Up to 4 pounds of
water can be stored inside the body for emergency. If we drink a lot of
water the body will realize it is available and won’t store it any longer.
Water is also the only liquid that can be used to cook, so either steaming,
or boiling. Although I do not recommend boiling your vegetables they turn
very gross. All the sulfur in the vegetables is released, they smell and
taste disgusting. I had some of the worst food I’ve ever tasted while doing
this diet. Because of the lack of seasoning, oil, and boiling the veggies,
the food tasted horrible.
How Is This Diet?
This diet as mentioned before does its job perfectly, it is extremely
quick for weight loss. On the other hand the negative effects it has on
your health are immense. Cutting off so many food groups means that all
the benefits they bring you disappear. Complex carbs are supposed to
break down slowly and give you energy when you need it, but with this
diet you have none of that extra energy. You are always tired. Some fats
are actually good for the body and clean your digestive system, they also
act in the same fashion as carbs where they give you energy; losing
healthy oils isn’t good. Dairy is great for stronger bones, muscles, teeth
etc. Because of the calcium and protein, you shouldn’t miss it. Meats are a
great source of protein for the body and give us other nutrients and
minerals like iron or omega-3. This diet is very bad for your health and it
starves you.
Affects of the diet
Because the diet makes us miss out on so many great things, our
body doesn’t like it. Missing all those foods from your system leaves you
felling weak, tired, angry, and you can not focus. Your performance level
lowers in every field (socially, academically, physically.) This diet always
makes you crave food, and it takes a lot of will power to stop yourself. It
can actually lead to long term problems if it is practiced for a long time.
For example because we experience malnutrition, our body can’t grow, so
if this diet continues for too long it can affect our growth. Diets can also
have negative psychological affects and can lead us to think we are not
skinny enough which can turn us anorexic or bulimic. This diet should not
be practiced ideally. If it is, the person shouldn’t diet and starve their
body for more than a week.
After The Diet
After about 5 days the body starts to crave high calorie foods.
When You do finish your diet you will immediately want to eat something
salty, greasy, with sauce and bread. Most likely you will consume a lot of
calories and amazingly all the weight you lost will come back as fast as
you lost it. All you were doing this whole time was flushing out the extra
weight and fat in your body, but by consuming it again they go back to
their original place. I lost 13 pounds in 6 days, then gained 13 pounds in 3
days. You can even gain more weight after the diet is over because your
body will be starved and it will want to gain all the calories back. The
worse part is that your body will be weaker at the end of the diet not
healthier and stronger. Because first, you depleted all of its supplies, then
you flushed in a bunch of junk. Even though my fight was the day after my
weigh in, my performance was very poor relatively because my body was
still weak and slow.
The Science and reasoning
Why can we hold back for the week that are body is being starved and
why not longer? A lot of science about how are bodies work date back to the
earlier days of man. We where originally all hunters and gatherers. This lasted
for most of our time except the past few millennia where civilization assigned
jobs to people and food became less scarce. As hunters and gatherers our
bodies had to go with out food for 5-7 days at a time before we got some
food. Evolution allowed us to do this, so I knew I could hold back on food for
that short period. This short period is the only time you are supposed to hold
back. The starvation period should not last any longer then a week.
Why do we gain the weight back after the diet? This goes back to the
early days of evolution again. Once the hunters had killed a pray they would over
eat. Storing the food and transporting it wasn’t the easiest job, so our bodies did
that for us. Our bodies evolved to be able to hold on to the extra fat, complex
carbs, sugars, water, etc. This would mean on the next trip where we starve for a
few days our bodies have a reserve. Therefor after the diet ends our body wants
to fill up its reserves again so it holds on to what ever we eat.
A healthy eating habit
A healthy eating habit is different then a diet. Diets are fast and
temporary, but eating habits aren’t. There can be many rules and info
about a healthy eating habit, but personally I don’t like wasting my time
on all the little facts. My only rule which works for me and I recommend
to you is make your own food fresh. That means no fast food, or processed
and packaged food. The reason frozen food and fast food taste good and
are addictive is because they are filled with components we crave. All of
the food is carbohydrates, sugar, and fat. The same ingredients our bodies
crave the most. This also has to do with evolution and the shortage of
those fats, sugars, and carbs in the past. Our bodies really want them and
will store them. Making your own food is healthy and fun. When cooking
your own food it tastes so much better then the outside food, and you
know what is going into your body. All the ingredients are under your
control, so you can be the judge of the health benefits.
Recommendation
Your best option is NOT TO DIET. Dieting and a healthy life
style are 2 very different things. This diet is a temporary torture for
a temporary weight loss goal. Unless you are an athlete who needs
to lose the weight quickly you should not go on this diet. It will
consume you! For athletes and other people who want to loose
weight you really have to eat and train properly. It will take time,
but it is the right way. Your body doesn’t deserve to be tortured like
this when the end result will be worse then the starting point. This
diet is not recommended to any one especially teens because of the
growth stunt it may cause. Take the right path even if it is not the
quickest or easiest.