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Weight loss diets that can wreck your health and make you gain weight: although there are happy exceptions to nearly every rule, for most people, diets don't work.
You don't have to "treat" yourself to tapeworms or eat like Fred Flintstone to make a major dietary mistake. Three more weight loss plans also have the potential to do real harm.
Getting enough sleep really makes a difference in weight loss. People who have sleep apnea or restless legs syndrome tend to develop insulin resistance, which forces the pancreas to make more insulin to keep blood sugar levels within normal ranges. Cells become resistant to the action of insulin for transporting glucose, but they continue to be responsive to insulin for transporting fat. More insulin, easier weight gain, harder weight loss.
Getting enough sleep also helps the brain "detox" from the effects of a hormone called ghrelin. As American television's Dr. Oz puts it, "when ghrelin's yellin'" the brain sends signals to eat, eat, eat, to replenish fat stores — whether your fat stores are depleted or not. Getting at least six hours of uninterrupted sleep helps your brain keep your appetite in check.
The Sleeping Beauty Diet, however, requires a great deal more than just six hours of uninterrupted sleep. Proponents of this diet recommend taking sedatives for 48 to 96 hours of sleep interrupted only by trips to the bathroom. Assuming you don't sleep eat the way some people sleep walk, you should lose weight.
The fact is that you may lose up to 4 pounds (about 2 kilos) of water weight, as described above, plus a pound (500 grams) or so of fat, plus however many pounds you lose to dehydration. However, they will all come back within a day or so of your returning to normal diet and normal activities, and you will have also lowered your set point so that your body burns fewer calories and future weight loss will be even more difficult. Besides, sedatives have side effects and aren't fun toys to play around with when you can't fit into your favorite pair of jeans anymore.
The Cabbage Soup Diet, New Cabbage Soup Diet, and New Cabbage Soup Diet with Acai Berry Plan, however, encourage dieters to eat enormous quantities of cabbage soup, bananas, tomatoes, and beefsteak over a seven-day period to lose mostly water weight. Since cabbage soup has very few calories, the liver uses glycogen and releases water that is urinated away; the cabbage soup diet at least prevents dehydration. Just as soon as you stop the diet, however, the weight comes back—whereas a volumetric diet takes weight off slowly and keeps it off for good.
These five diet plans are only the worst of the worst. The HGH diet under medical supervision may lead to massive weight gain but won't, one hopes, lead to permanent damage to health. The grapefruit diet works on the same principle as the cabbage soup diet, and is followed by the same kind of rapid weight regain. The Five-Bite Diet is a less extreme version of L'Air Fooding, and ear stapling can lead to nasty ear infections. Is it necessary to tell you why the Cotton Ball Diet (eating cotton balls or cotton swabs before meals) is a bad idea?
It's always better to make permanent changes in lifestyle that lead to permanent weight loss. Don't deprive yourself to lose weight fast so you can go right back to your nutritional habits that got you into trouble in the first place. Reward yourself with self-control and self-esteem to eat food you like in amounts your body needs for long-term good health.
3. The Sleeping Beauty Diet
Getting enough sleep also helps the brain "detox" from the effects of a hormone called ghrelin. As American television's Dr. Oz puts it, "when ghrelin's yellin'" the brain sends signals to eat, eat, eat, to replenish fat stores — whether your fat stores are depleted or not. Getting at least six hours of uninterrupted sleep helps your brain keep your appetite in check.
The Sleeping Beauty Diet, however, requires a great deal more than just six hours of uninterrupted sleep. Proponents of this diet recommend taking sedatives for 48 to 96 hours of sleep interrupted only by trips to the bathroom. Assuming you don't sleep eat the way some people sleep walk, you should lose weight.
The fact is that you may lose up to 4 pounds (about 2 kilos) of water weight, as described above, plus a pound (500 grams) or so of fat, plus however many pounds you lose to dehydration. However, they will all come back within a day or so of your returning to normal diet and normal activities, and you will have also lowered your set point so that your body burns fewer calories and future weight loss will be even more difficult. Besides, sedatives have side effects and aren't fun toys to play around with when you can't fit into your favorite pair of jeans anymore.
4. The Airtarian Diet
One of the latest diet crazes is L'Air Fooding, as it is known in France, or airtarianism, as it is known in the USA, where "eating nothing" has been recommended for a much longer time.
The idea in this diet is to look at food, perhaps holding small servings of food at the mouth without eating them, losing weight by not eating at all. There is a medical term for this practice. It's anorexia. At worst, airtarianism and L'Air Fooding encourage anorexics to cause themselves further harm. At best, deprivation today leads to binging tomorrow.
For the less disciplined among us, come on! Holding food at the mouth is only going to take it down the hatch, anyway. If you want to fast, fast. There are some benefits to intermittent fasting. There's no need to tempt yourself by looking at food. The greedy among us would just call this cruel.
5. The Cabbage Soup Diet
Every American has heard the Campbell's Soup slogan "Soup is good food." And homemade, slowly simmered soups are. Tiny particles of vegetable and protein combine during the process of cooking the soup. These particles are difficult for the stomach to suggest, so you stay full longer and typically eat less without counting calories, about 150 calories per meal less. Over the course of two weeks, simply adding a cup of soup (choosing one that you actually like, even if cabbage) will lead to effortless loss of about a pound (500 grams).The Cabbage Soup Diet, New Cabbage Soup Diet, and New Cabbage Soup Diet with Acai Berry Plan, however, encourage dieters to eat enormous quantities of cabbage soup, bananas, tomatoes, and beefsteak over a seven-day period to lose mostly water weight. Since cabbage soup has very few calories, the liver uses glycogen and releases water that is urinated away; the cabbage soup diet at least prevents dehydration. Just as soon as you stop the diet, however, the weight comes back—whereas a volumetric diet takes weight off slowly and keeps it off for good.
These five diet plans are only the worst of the worst. The HGH diet under medical supervision may lead to massive weight gain but won't, one hopes, lead to permanent damage to health. The grapefruit diet works on the same principle as the cabbage soup diet, and is followed by the same kind of rapid weight regain. The Five-Bite Diet is a less extreme version of L'Air Fooding, and ear stapling can lead to nasty ear infections. Is it necessary to tell you why the Cotton Ball Diet (eating cotton balls or cotton swabs before meals) is a bad idea?
It's always better to make permanent changes in lifestyle that lead to permanent weight loss. Don't deprive yourself to lose weight fast so you can go right back to your nutritional habits that got you into trouble in the first place. Reward yourself with self-control and self-esteem to eat food you like in amounts your body needs for long-term good health.
- Feinman RD. Fad diets in the treatment of diabetes.Curr Diab Rep. 2011 Apr, 11(2):128-35.
- Photo courtesy of Andrés Monroy-Hernández by Flickr : www.flickr.com/photos/amonroy/50670337/