 rgupta
Ram Gupta is a management consultant.
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Who is happy about being overweight or obese? The answer, at least in most modern households, is: no one. Being overweight is neither desirable nor healthy. So, a lot of people figure, 'since I want to lose 10 pounds fast, the faster I can do it, the better.' This is the thought process that gets people to turn to drastic 'crash' diets. Sometimes there are external motivations too, such as getting in shape for the beach holiday or wedding coming up in two weeks. Unfortunately, drastic weight reduction is not healthy at all, and crash diets are generally not even effective in the long run for health, though you may lose 10 pounds from your body.
What is a Crash Diet?
People wanting to lose 10 pounds fast generally think of going on a crash diet program. Essentially, a crash or quick-fix diet is any diet that is seriously restrictive in terms of what someone is permitted to eat and/or involves drastic fasting. Generally people use crash diets to achieve short-term weight loss goals. In fact, a lot of people go into these crash diets knowing very well that they are risking their health, and nowadays even the diet themselves come with health disclaimers, warning people against practicing them for more than a week or ten days. However, the truth is that an unhealthy diet is unhealthy in the short-term too, and is best avoided altogether. Here are some of the health problems associated with fast weight loss diets.
Slow Metabolism
If you want to lose 10 pounds fast, you must understand the relationship of metabolism rate and your body. When the body is put into starvation mode, it prepares itself for survival. What this means is that its functions and processes slow down, and it begins to store fat rather than burn it, to survive in the famine conditions. This slowing down of the metabolism can spell disaster for one's health, and when one returns to a normal diet, the body is not even able to burn a regular amount of calories. The result: all that excess weight quickly comes back, defeating the very purpose of losing weight fast.
Loss of Fluids and Not Fat
This will surprise many, but if you chose to lose 10 pounds fast through crash diet, a lot of the fast weight loss that happens during crash diets is a loss of fluids rather than accumulated fat. In other words, most of that excess fat is still right where it was!
Cravings and Depression
It is very common for people on crash diets to experience intense food cravings, a loss of concentration and even serious depression. Basically, it is not easy for the body or the mind to handle such a drastic shock, and your own physical mechanism tries to warn you with these alarm bells. One must understand that losing 10 pounds fast should become a cause of concern.
Losing Out on Vital Nutrients
When one goes on a severely restrictive diet in a bid to lose 10 pounds fast, such as a liquid-only diet or an extremely low-carbohydrate diet, the body loses out on some vital nutrients, which can cause serious health problems, including damage to the liver, kidney or heart.
A Strong Temptation
Nowadays, those who propagate crash diets are familiar with these risks, and this is why they recommend their diets only for a short period of period. But that doesn't change the fact that they are not healthy. In fact, crash diets are only surviving thanks to the people who cannot resist the temptation of losing those 10 pounds fast and overnight.
If you are one of those people who have declared 'I want to lose 10 pounds fast,' your best chance is to make sustainable and healthy lifestyle changes. Adopt a well-rounded, nutritious and wholesome diet and incorporate some exercise into your routine. This way your metabolism will get a spur, your health will improve and your weight loss will be steady and consistent. Six months down the line you will have reason to feel proud of yourself. Losing weight will be a sweet memory.
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