Everyone wants to lose the extra calories they are carrying around, that’s a given – and this is exactly why select companies have gone into a diet overdrive by hyping their products as the perfect dieting product. The sheer variety of diet pills, diet plans and even changes to lifestyle can indeed be overwhelming to the lay consumer and chances are, so would you be. But the question as to the effectiveness of such diets and long-term effects on health are generally glossed over by these companies which is why we need to take a closer look at some of the negative aspects of dieting.
Metabolism: Often, most diet programs from the various diet plans to pills target your body’s metabolic rate; your metabolic rate is the rate at which your body burns through the various calories you had stored. The problem though is that most of these diets are short-term plans, designed to cut your calorie intake drastically. As a result, your metabolism does not slow down as hyped by these companies and instead it goes into an overdrive as it recognizes that you are in the starvation mode. The end result is that you may even put on a few pounds after your dieting period is over since your metabolism starts to store all the calories you have consumed.
Nutritional deficiencies: If you have been on a diet plan recently, then you would have noticed the prolonged periods where you feel extremely fatigued. Well, that’s your body’s way of telling you that you are not getting enough nutritional value. This is what happens when you go on a diet, you either cut back on carbs or those trans-fats but in the process, you also cut out essential nutrients that your body requires to function seamlessly.
High stress: Dieting is never easy and going prolonged periods without food or adequate nourishment is bound to leave you feeling completely stressed out. As a result, you are irritable, moody and feel extremely stressed. It is important that you take adequate measures to help deal with the stress since it can result in various other health conditions if left unchecked. High-stress levels are often quoted as one of the causative factors behind heart attacks and strokes.
Self-esteem: Your self-esteem often goes for a toss as you get into dieting; everyone has the perfect idea of what they should be like and try to conform to this perfect look is often one of the reasons why you opted to diet in the first place. The problem though is that dieting may cause you to experience everything from feeling guilty to thinking less of yourself as a person because you happen to be a little heavy. And dieting, on top of this, will only serve to cause your self-esteem to dip further.
These are some of the associated side effects that come with dieting and whether you choose to target the carbs or something else or opt or the Atkins diet. The fact remains that dieting comes with its own negative side effects.