Reasons To Avoid Fad Diets

When it comes to New Year’s resolutions, losing weight tops the list year after year. Weight loss is an excellent goal – if it is achieved in a healthy manner. Unfortunately, many individuals are impatient about shedding their extra weight and resort to more risky approaches so they can achieve their goals faster.

When you want to lose weight as quickly as possible, it can be tempting to peruse the Internet for the latest fad diets on the market. However, these quick fixes for weight loss are often diet plans or products that ignore potential health dangers and produce only temporary results. Fad diets also tend to make unrealistic claims just to get consumers to buy their product. Many of them also end up in a loss of water weight, which gives false results when it comes to true, healthy weight loss.

Weight loss should be viewed with consideration to your whole body health. For healthy, effective and long-term weight management, avoid fad diets at all costs.

Here are just a few reasons why fad diets may do more harm than good:

#1 Not a Long-Term Solution: As mentioned above, many fad diets promise to help you lose a certain number of pounds in a short amount of time. In many cases, this is just water weight and not a sustainable solution for long-term use.

#2 Potentially Dangerous: Not only are many fad diet products not approved by the FDA, but many of these plans encourage consumers to exclude certain foods or food groups from their diet.  Neglecting to eat a balanced diet with nutrients from all of the major foods groups can pose a serious threat to your overall health over time.

#3 A Cookie Cutter Approach: Perhaps the most significant downfall of a fad diet is that it assumes a “one size fits all” approach. Each person has a unique body with distinctive differences in their metabolic system, genetic tendencies and hormonal balance. Therefore, the same diet plan that works for one person may be ineffective or even dangerous for the next.

#4 Ignores Medical Reasons for Your Weight Loss Struggle: There are many medical conditions that cause weight loss, including thyroid disorder, hormone imbalance, diabetes and more. Neglecting to consider or address these conditions can be detrimental to your weight loss journey, especially if you are choosing a fad diet that aggravates an existing medical condition.

If you are experiencing dizziness, dehydration, constipation/diarrhea, constant hunger or mood changes, your fad diet may be compromising your health despite what the scale is telling you.

A Physician’s Approach to Your Weight

Want to lose weight safely? Let a board-certified physician help you. At the office of Dr. Brent Michael, we consider potential causes such as glucose/insulin imbalance, hormonal imbalance, thyroid issues, malabsorption and other factors that can impact a patient’s inability to lose weight despite proper diet and exercise. Dr. Michael can also recommend a customized and healthy approach to help you achieve your ideal weight and meet your New Year’s goals.