Weight loss diet mistakes to avoid

Doing the wrong things while on a weight loss diet can negate its effects. Should you avoid fat and carbs or should you eat just protein? Find out why such fad diets won't give you desired results. Follow this weight loss guide and lose all the extra pounds.

A recent forum post highlighted a trend that calls for eliminating carbohydrates from the diet. It is purported to be a weight loss diet. Such diet fads are often in the news, and people blindly follow them, without caring to know the repercussions.

The body has requirements for certain nutrients, in balanced quantities. So, can eliminating one group of food from the diet be beneficial? Be it carbohydrates or fats, completely excluding them from the diet is not a healthy way to lose weight.

There are tens of weight-loss diet plans that proclaim remarkable results. People swear by the benefits of these diets. Be it the GM diet or Atkins or the South Beach diet or any other, everyone who is on them, say that work wonders. The weight loss is there for all to see. But, what people do not see is the damage that is being done to the body. How can depriving the body of nutrition be good?

That of course, is one aspect; the other is that such diets are not sustainable and show results only as long as they are followed. The weight is back again, once the diet is stopped. Diets are just a temporary, quick-fix to the weight problem and not a permanent solution.

Staying fit and healthy requires a dedicated plan, which includes a healthy diet clubbed with strength and cardiovascular training. A combination of these three is a healthy way of losing weight. However, people desperate to lose weight often resort to desperate measures such as fad diets. Dieting can result in some severe health issues.

Let me explain the disadvantages with some of the popular diets –

Skipping meals

Many people resort to skipping meals in a bid to lose weight. The thought behind this weight-loss regime is that skipping meals creates a calorie deficit, which the body makes up from digging into the energy reserves, by burning stored fat.

The body needs more than just energy. There are a whole lot of other nutrients that the body needs for its day to day processes. The body doesn't store all the nutrients and absorbs them from food.

In skipping meals you deprive your body of those nutrients and this can have an adverse effect on the immune system and be detrimental to health. Eat smaller portions instead, while keeping the nutritional quotient of your meals high.

Banking on fad diets

Diets that restrict what you eat can be low in nutrition. Remember, we get our nutrition from a combination of foods and all foods are not equal. A diet that replaces all foods with protein shakes will definitely cause an imbalance of nutrients in the body.

If you want to boost your protein in-take include healthier options in your diet. Egg whites, white meat and soy products are good substitutes for protein shakes. Do not cut out carbohydrates from your diet; instead eat carbohydrate-rich foods, in their natural form. They have a lower Glycemic Index and hence healthier.

Following wrong workout plans

Overdoing high-intensity workouts will cause a burnout. When doing a high-intensity workout you need to balance it with a proper diet plan. This includes having a pre-workout snack, proper hydration and a post-workout snack.

High-intensity workouts sap energy levels and proper replenishment of nutrients is essential before and after the workout, so the body burns fat during the workout and continues to burn fat, after the workout too.

To avoid sore muscles, do such workouts on alternate days.

Not having a pre-workout snack

According to fitness experts, physical workouts should never be done on an empty stomach. You need to eat a healthy snack to fuel the workout. If you workout on an empty stomach you lose muscle mass instead of burning fat.

The body turns to muscle for fuel. Eat a handful of nuts and/or seeds or have an omelette or a banana smoothie or a whole-grain chicken sandwich before the workout and you'll burn fat faster. Even vegans needs a pre-workout snack for nutritional balance.

Detox diet

Another weight-loss trend that is doing the rounds is the detox diet that calls for drinking just juice. Juices are healthy, but only in relation to say an aerated drink, but you don't replace them for meals. That is the worst thing you can do.

Juices are rich in minerals and vitamins but have no fibre or protein. Fibre is needed to keep the digestive tract healthy and protein to build muscle. Additionally, the concentrated sugars that are made available in fruit juices can spike blood sugar levels.

A juice diet will cause weight loss, but you'll be losing muscles weight and not burning fat. The body will lose it taut look and become flabby. Muscle loss will cause the skin to sag.

Cutting out fat

The belief that cutting out fat from the diet would result in healthy weight loss is incorrect. The body needs fat, so choose to eat healthy fats. Choose avocado over butter and replace the ghee with olive oil.

Certain vitamins are oil-soluble and the body will absorb them only in the presence of fat. The body turns carotene into vitamin A when dietary fat is present. There are other bodily functions that require dietary fat. Avoiding fat will also leave you with pale looking unhealthy skin and cause mental and physical exhaustion.

Carbohydrate free diet

Carbohydrates form the base of the food-chart pyramid and eliminating them from the diet can be a silly mistake. Carbs are rich in vital nutrients needed by the body to function. Carbs make up the bulk of our food. Switch to healthy carbs available in whole-grain foods, legumes and fruits etc.

Carbs become bad when they have been stripped off their nutrition. So, Maida becomes the enemy, while whole wheat flour is the friend. Carbs are also made unhealthy by the way they are cooked. Using potatoes for French fries turns a good carb into an unhealthy food.

Protein rich diet

A diet rich in protein will show weight loss on the scale, but it won't be because of fat loss. What you will lose is water and the weight loss will not be because of the excess fat being burnt.

Eating a protein-rich diet that comes from a meat source has other issues. There is no fibre in meat and couple with water loss, the excessive protein in the diet will cause digestive issues, particularly constipation, which could lead to haemorrhoids.

Not including healthy fats

Omega-3 fatty acids are healthy fats that need to be incorporated into your diet when you are on a weight loss regimen. These fats will help you burn fat, keep you satiated and lower LDL cholesterol that clogs arteries.

Munch on walnuts, add avocado to your salad and olive oil to your food. Chia seeds are a superfood that provides copious amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. If you are a meat eater, include fish in your diet. Salmon, mackerel, tuna and sardines are particularly rich in heart friendly fats.

Unhealthy scoops of Yoghurt

Eating dairy on a weight-loss diet is essential. However, switch to low-fat skimmed milk and avoid cheeses as they are calorie dense. Eating yoghurt is good, as it contains gut-friendly bacteria that will keep your digestive tract healthy. Choose fresh yoghurt that is set at home. Avoid flavoured yoghurt as they increase your sugar intake and prevent weight loss.

Making salads unhealthy

Salads are healthy, but they can also be unhealthy. It depends on what you add to it. Salad dressings that contain mayonnaise, thousand island and honey mustard etc., is not allowed. Adding cheese to the salad raises its calorie count. Stick to green salads, with just a drizzle of olive oil and vinegar dressing.

You can boost the nutrient quotient of the salad by adding fresh fruits, seeds and nuts etc.

Remember, weight loss is possible through healthy habits. The practices that you follow may do you more harm than good. If you want to lose weight, eat right, eat smaller portions, exercise and drink water. Don't fall for weight loss fads for their results are temporary. The key to weight loss is balanced diet plus exercise.

Article by Juana

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Author: umesh02 Mar 2018 Member Level: Diamond   Points : 4

This article is an eye-opener for those who are on dieting and doing regular workouts.

Some people are blindly following weight loss programs and are very happy to note that their weight is decreasing fast as well they are looking more attractive due to smoothing of body contours.

These people are forgetting the crucial thing that body requires a minimum of carbohydrates, proteins and various minerals and nutrients for its maintenance and depriving it of these bare minimum essentials will be in fact a suicidal act.

As per eating disorder statistics and data of US, it is found that about 4% of anorexic people die due to its complications in one form or other.

The developing countries are also following this trend and though I do not have any such data for our country but as per some studies done in 1995 and 2001, the mortality rate even in our country is comparable to the western world. Some of those studies suggest it in the range 4-9% depending on the age group. The young people are more affected by this eating disorder to look pretty and in good shape.

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