So after the Christmas period of not only a huge plate of the biggest roast dinner served in the course of history many of us find ourselves snacking on the chocolate boxes in front of Christmas movies and not even noticing.
Not to even mention the calorie content in all the alcohol that’s added up across the Christmas break.
So like most New Year’s Eve we make a resolution to lose weight, get fit and diet. Most of the time there isn’t enough commitment made to keep your resolution and you find yourself in the kitchen cooking quick freezer to oven dinners to keep you and your family happy.
Looking into the history of diets there have been so many promises of quick fix diets that work with the snap of your fingers and are easy to follow if you just cut things out entirely or even turn to weight loss pills that can be extremely dangerous unless your doctor has personally recommended these pills.
There as so many diet types to choose from it’s truly terrifying. Here we will look at some of the well known and not so well known diets that desperate people have resorted to over the last few years including their benefits and downfalls.
The Paleo diet
this involves eliminating all processed foods and all sugar. Both of these things are positive but when you start to use sugar replacements you find they contain other harmful things in its place. Either that or by cutting out all sugar all the time drives you to the point where you crave sugar so badly you crash from the diet and it doesn’t work.
The Vegan diet
the vegetarian diet that eliminates meat and animal products. The problem with this diet is people are led to believe they can take their fill on all things non animal related and stuff full of carbohydrates instead, there is also a risk of not understanding you may need other ways to get iron into your body so may feel run down and lethargic.
The Atkins diet
this diet is a low carbohydrate diet that can be very dangerous s it messes with your insulin levels and can lead to heart disease.
Ketogenic diet
in this diet you reduce carbohydrates and uptake your fat intake as the theory is your body will burn up fats quicker. The problem is who’s heard of eating more fat to loose wight? It also isn’t very well matched with people who suffer from a bowel condition.
The south beach diet
again another diet that messes with your insulin levels depending on the types of carbohydrates you eat. Any diet that messes with your insulin level can be critically dangerous especially if you have a underlying issue with insulin.
The Mediterranean diet
whilst the emphasis is on to eat lots of plant based foods the main source of energy and substance is from diary products. If your hungry your going to head to the fridge and be eating blocks of cheddar and family size yogurt pots so it doesn’t seem like this would be the best approach.
Weight watchers diet
while your provided with a mountain load of information about how many points each food item contains, making food into a mathematical complicated equation a lot of people get confused and sadly only five percent of people who pay and enrol maintain; the weight they loose after finishing the programme you stop counting points and your body withholds the food it’s been missing.
Plus there’s the added embarrassment of having to weight yourself every week in front of everyone and pay for the privilege of embarrassing yourself.
The 5/2 diet
this has become really popular recently and is where you eat normally for 5 days and fast on 2 days with just 500 calories. Although health care professionals recommend not restricting your energy on two consecutive days as it’s unhealthy.
People who take this diet expect a quick fix but they dint realise that they actually need to change their eating habits and actually eat healthily whilst on the diet.
If you go mad on your five days of eating your eat over the amount for your total weekly intake so it wouldn’t work at all. You may feel weak and shaky on your fasting days and Side effects with this diet are difficulty sleeping, bad breath, constipation and irritability.
So it may not be safe to practice diets if you have medical conditions or are pregnant so your best bet is to make a appointment with the doctor and discuss the best way forward for you as a individual.
Conclusion
If your looking for a quick fix or a cheat then sadly there isn’t one, the best and safest way to lose weight isn’t to cut out one cluster of food totally, it’s to eat a well balanced diet and increase your exercise.
Check your calorie intake on a rough day and see if you can reduce it without missing out your vital vitamins and minerals your body needs to survive. When you plate your meals up half should be veg, a quarter should be carbohydrates and a quarter should be meat.
Doctors are really reluctant to give you a quick fix with a operation unless you’ve tried everything and if normal dieting isn’t working for you there may be a thyroid issue your unaware of and your gp can check that.
Quick fix diets promise to reduce your weight but the truth is that it’s a lie, perhaps there may be a chance you could loose some weight with one of the diets that is the new craze but it doesn’t mean it’s safe for you just because sally down the road managed to lose Weight with it.
Sure your deserve a glass of wine or beer once in a while but remember they do hold calories and often people eat late at night after drinking.
When you eat late at night your body goes into resting mode when you sleep so your metabolism slows down and it can’t deal with the food you’ve just eaten on the same way as it would if you were active.
Your New Years resolution should be to look after yourself and do your best to keep in good health and none of the quick fix diets can do that for you.
