Why Every Weight Loss Fad Diet Fails

Perhaps you want to shed pounds fast, and you've heard there's a weight loss fad diet that can shave off 15 pounds in two weeks. Can it happen?

If you want to drop a few pounds for a short period of time, the truth is that almost any weight loss fad diet will work. Unfortunately, once the weight loss fad diet is over, the odds are that you will not only gain back the weight you lost, but then some.

Each and every weight loss fad diet, or "crash diet," will fail you in the end. As a response to the lack of calories you are offering your body, it will switch over into "survival mode" to adjust to the decreased intake of food.

Your metabolic rate will come to a halt when your body switches into survival mode; this is because it wants to hold onto calories to ensure that it can meet nutritional requirements. The fact is that your body doesn't know you have tons of food available; it thinks it's in a famine due to the drastic loss of calories.

A weight loss fad diet will cause you to lose equal amounts of fat and muscle. Muscle tissue is responsible for maintaining a high metabolic rate and keeping you strong. Since muscle burns more calories than your fat does because it's a metabolically active tissue, keep in mind that your metabolism will slow even further when you lose that muscle.

You get caught up in a yo-yo diet when you follow a weight loss fad diet. If you want to lose weight and not gain it back, it's critical to have a sensible and patient dietary plan. Losing just one to two pounds of fat per week is totally acceptable; plus, it's much easier to maintain than any quick and dramatic weight loss that won't last.

Basically, when you get caught up in a weight loss fad diet, you are restricting too many calories and are physically guaranteed to fail. Instead, go for a calorie restriction of just 15 to 20 percent less than your body's usual requirement for maintenance. The number of calories your body requires every day to keep its current weight is your maintenance level.

Typically, you will have to lower your caloric intake by 300-500 calories each day. One pound of stored fat is equal to 3500 calories, so this means that once you factor exercise into the equation, losing 1-2 pounds of fat each week is not unrealistic.

Remember that most weight loss fad diet programs don't include exercise as a way to lose weight. Even though it is possible to eliminate body fat by just dieting, you will get much better results if you add both cardiovascular exercise and resistance training to what you're already doing.

These forms of exercise will ignite your fat burning metabolism and help you to maintain your body's levels of lean muscle mass. When trying to take off weight, increase your activity level instead of reducing your food intake; it always offers stronger results.

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