Weight Loss Solutions: Extreme Dieting for Life

December 5, 2012 · Posted in Personal, Wellness 

For two years now, I have been telling myself that ‘I WILL LOSE WEIGHT THIS YEAR’ – and I do. For a few months, I lose some pounds – only to gain them back after I have stopped dieting. This 2013, I’m trying it again but the question is – which diet plan is the best? (Surely, I cannot lose weight with exercise alone since I really need to sit down and be in front of my laptop more than ten hours a day) The dieting shelves in the book shops are full, magazines suggest a new diet every week, the internet has forums, blogs and websites promoting and discussing different diets but which among these diet plans will be effective on a long term basis?

I have checked online and most lifelong dieters will be able to reel off a list of diets they have tried and often failed at.  The most common ones you often hear are cabbage soup, apple diet, juice diet, Slim Fast, Atkins, Weight Watchers, Slimmers World and Dukan to name but a few.

The extreme diets such as cabbage soup and juice diets work by drastically reducing your calorie intake causing you to lose weight.  However in short term extreme diets often the weight loss if from lost water and sometimes even lean tissue being burnt as fat takes longer to burn.  You can easily lose a dramatic amount of weight in a short period of time but these diets are not sustainable and not healthy.  By cutting out major food groups you are putting your health at risk as you will not be getting the essential vitamins and minerals your body needs.  Often once you have lost weight on the extreme diets and go back to eating normally you put the weight straight back on.  When you lose weight your metabolic rate slows down so when you start eating more food again your metabolic rate isn’t ready to burn off the extra calories.

Lifelong diets which look at changing your way of eating are much more sustainable and will produce better weight loss results in the long term.  Diets like Weight Watchers and Slimming World look to change your whole way of eating and promote a healthy diet plan – the only downside is constant point counting on WW and slightly complicated red and green days with Slimming World.  I don’t really understand how the whole thing works as of now.

On the other hand, the Dukan Diet starts with an extreme Attack phase which drastically reduces your calorific intake to shock your body into losing weight and kick starting your diet but the other three dukan diet phases look to integrate the Dukan way of eating into a lifelong eating plan.

In short, the long term more sustainable diets are a healthier and more successful weight loss plan. Even though the results might not be as dramatic in the short term, they will work better long term and you are more likely to still be at your goal weight in ten years time then if you extreme diet on and off for ten years. I hope I can commit myself to a plan and really work on it. I miss those days when my waist line was in 20s.

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Comments

  • Dawn K

    It a battle that so many of us face! I’ve begun “crowding out.” Eating so much raw food (fruits, veggies, nuts, etc)… that I’ll be too full to eat anything else. Hopefully I can stick with it :)

  • Sharisse Lopez

     I’m pregnant. I know it’s okay to gain weight during this time and I totally accept that, but I feel like I’m gaining too much and I really wish there was a healthy way to diet while pregnant/breastfeeding. If I think about how I won’t be back down to my normal weight until after a whole year I get so depressed! Ugh.

  • Amanda Lyn

    It’s a huge battle for a lot of people. It’s easy to lose weight but easier, it seems, to gain it back. Temptation is a huge thing and hard to fight. Moderation and knowing it’s okay to indulge on occasion can help sometimes. I know the feeling of telling myself I’m starting my diet. I’ve said it plenty of times already and have not done it yet. Sigh.

  • Kelly Reci

    Thank you for this information. I am always looking for a new way to loose weight.

  • http://www.mum-writes.com/ jared’s mum

    my weight-gain is also one of my bigger problems and i really attribute this unsightly mid-section to my endless food binges and big appetite! 

    i guess one of the key really is to have a healthy eating habit and exercise. it is also important to keep active to lose all the unwanted fats we put in our body.  this year i failed on both, but i am really hoping to get my groove back in 2013! i promise! :D

  • http://www.facebook.com/mommypehpot Pehpot Pineda

    the best diet I did is to eat right and use C-lium :)  
    eating right means eating every 4 hours everyday, with a portion of veggies, meat and carbs on your plate (that’s 1/2 of the plate should be veggies, 1/4 for protein and 1/4 for carbs).. effective talaga :)  

  • Melissa S.O.S. Mom

    I must agree that life long diets are probably the best way to go rather than an intensive short therm rapid weight loss… Some people go to extremes to loose weight fast but it is not the best way to go. 

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