"Crash" Usually Precedes "And Burn": Diets To Stay Away From

Losing weight is tough to do; there's simply no way around it. This fact is so hard to face, though, that many people put their faith in "miracle" diets that promise maximum results with minimum effort. You should do your best to avoid falling into this crowd. This article will teach you a little bit about some of the least effective (and most potentially dangerous) diets out there.

1- Ultra-Low-Calorie. Many diets over-simplify the way your body uses food. The boil everything down to the hard equation "low intake = weight loss." This can easily be unproductive, counter-productive, or downright dangerous. Reducing your food intake to minimal levels will simply throw your metabolism into "survival" mode. Rather than burning stored fat, your body will try to minimize its energy output. Be aware that there is a diet similar to this - calorie restriction - that has some medically-verified health benefits. Restricted-calorie diets are extremely demanding, though, and should only be attempted with extensive medical supervision.

2- Single Food. This is one of the most frequently-recurring type of fad diets. It seems that every week some enterprising diet maven appears to tout the benefits of the all-carrot/guava/potato/moose meat diet. The perennial popularity of these fad diets is a clear demonstration of the power of hope over common sense. Don't get swayed by hype; remember that you've been taught for decades how important it is to have balance in your diet.

 3- Elimination (Give Up One Food). The mirror image of the previous diet, this one is becoming equally common. It has gained popularity since the appearance of the Atkins Diet in the last decade, which can deliver amazing results and involves lowering the amount of certain types of carbohydrates. Countless imitators have appeared, and most of them neglect an important part of Atkins: the zero-carbohydrate phase of these imitators are not healthy. Cutting a major nutrient out of your diet permanently is never a good idea.

4. Cleansing. These types of diets are edging dangerously close to quackery and snake oil. The people pushing cleansing diets often lay the blame for unwanted weight at the feet of ill-defined "toxins" that have to be purged from your body. Be aware that when cleansing diets cause you to lose weight, it is virtually always in the form of retained water. This weight will come back rapidly, and cleansing constantly to keep it off is extremely unhealthy.

5. Pills. There are basically two types of diet pills: Those that are stuffed with illegal stimulants and those stuffed with legal ones. Neither make a good option for healthy weight loss. In the case of legal diet pills, what you're getting is little more than a high dose of caffeine. Like a cleansing diet, these pills tend to purge water weight that you cannot and should not keep off in the long term.

When you decide you want to lose weight, what makes that decision important is the commitment that comes with it. All of the healthy, effective ways to reduce your weight and keep it down involve a lot of hard work and effort on your part. Be proud of your decision and follow through with it; don't fall for the hype surrounding effort-free diets.