February 22, 2012

What are some of the worst diets that should be avoided?

Before people seek treatment options to lose weight like gastric bypass surgery, there is a wealth of diets out there that say they can help you shed the pounds. Of these there are many diet plans that guarantee weight loss, but the effects may only be felt short-term. These harmful weight loss methods could reduce your body weight, but could also damage your overall health in the long run. Following are some of the worst diet plans:

Low Carbohydrate plan: This diet plan involves low levels of carbohydrates and high levels of protein, which reduces weight, but will cause many health conditions like dehydration, constipation, kidney conditions and damage of free radical cells. Also when the body becomes accustomed to receiving energy from protein instead of carbohydrates, it will become very difficult to eat bread or pasta again without putting on weight.

Elimination of food group diet: Diet plans that require avoiding any specific food group like fruits, dairy, meat, starches etc will certainly deny you of important nutrition that your body needs. It is not elimination that helps, but moderation. To be healthy, nutrition should be received from all main food groups.

Single food diets: The diet plans that requires sticking to just a single type of food are worse than those that require eliminating specific food groups. This diet plan will certainly deprive the body from receiving important nutrients required by the body, which can never be fully addressed with the help of diet supplements. It is also impossible to stick to a single food diet for a lifetime and the moment you move back to your previous regular diet, you will gain all the weight that you lost and some more.

Packaged food diet: This diet plan involves purchasing packaged foods that have reduced calories. The packaged foods are often more expensive and do not have the same nutritional value as fresh food. In the long run it is impossible to follow packaged food diet and when you move back to your regular eating patterns you will regain all the weight that you may have lost.

When choosing a plan to lose weight, always consider the long-term effects upon your overall health, not just the amount of weight it will help you to lose. There are many fast weight loss methods that can give you the desired results momentarily, but these can also cause serious health problems in the future. However, if you are finding it extremely difficult to lose weight and have tried a balanced diet and exercise to no avail, you may want to ask your doctor about weight loss surgery, to see if you are applicable.