WHAT ARE FAST DIETS?

Fast diets are everywhere these days. One has only to turn on the television or pick up any woman’s magazine to be literally bombarded with a huge variety of tips, tricks, cheats, and hints on how to lose weight fast. It’s almost as if trying and discarding diets on a daily basis has become our national pastime.

Most of us would like to lose weight. And, because we have been conditioned to expect instant gratification, we want to do it quickly. We want that fast transformation, and will try any number of strange diets in an effort to reach our goal.

There are many different diet plans out there that can help quickly jump start your weight loss. Some of the most popular fast diet plans include things such as a juice fast, where you consume nothing but juice for several days before going back to solid food, and the cabbage soup diet, where you eat cabbage soup for 2 out of 3 meals every day. Other diets may recommend eating foods in certain combinations on the theory that this makes a difference in the way the fat and calories are absorbed into the body.

Some of the more extreme fast diets include the Lemonade Diet. This diet calls for the dieter to drink 160 ounces a day of a lemonade mixture mixed with cayenne pepper and nothing else. No fruit, vegetables, meat or beverages, just the lemonade. Equally strange is the Chocolate Diet, which bans all salt, sugars, dairy products, red meat, nuts, seeds, coffee or soda, but allows you up to one ounce of chocolate every day.

Trying to lose weight quickly can have some unpleasant side effects. By drastically cutting your caloric intake, you may initially see a quick loss of pounds followed by no weight loss at all. This happens because your body’s starvation response kicks in. The starvation response is something that humans developed over thousands of years of evolution as a means to conserve energy. If your body experiences a sudden drastic reduction in calories, it will automatically slow your metabolism so that fewer calories will be burned, hence saving energy. Instead of cutting your calorie count so drastically, try reducing it by making healthier choices and slowly incorporating exercise into your daily routine.

While a fast diet can provide the motivation many people need to continue on a healthier eating plan, it is not always an appropriate long-term option. Here are some tips which can help you quickly drop some pounds, but which are also easy to maintain.

• Cut the fat-try to have no more than 25% of your calories come from fat.
• Reduce sugar and artificial sweeteners-sugar adds unnecessary calories and artificial sweeteners can make you crave sweets in general.
• Drink water-as a general rule, drink a half ounce of water for every pound of body weight.
• Choose fiber-high fiber foods such as raw vegetables and whole grain products will help you feel full so you eat less.

By following these common sense rules, you should be able to start losing weight at a sensible rate, which will help you keep it off in the long run.