5 Reasons Why Fad Diets Are Bad
Keto, Atkins, paleo, juice cleanses, OMAD (one meal a day), IIFYM (if it fits your macros), Jenny Craig, and Weight Watchers are all some of the most popular fad diets that people fall victim to trying. It is estimated that 45 million Americans go on a diet each year. The common denominator between all of these diets is that they all make you eat a lower amount of calories by restricting types or amounts of food you eat to promote weight loss. They are usually backed by a small amount of science without many long-term trials. You know these diets because most of them have a large social media presence to make them trendy. Think about a time where you or someone you know has tried one of these diets, how long could they stick to it and keep the weight off? Were they satisfied on the diet? The truth is, we are not meant to eat only foods based on a strict diet plan with no flexibility.
Source: BMC.
Here are 5 reasons why fad diets are bad:
1. Not sustainable
The first reason why fad diets are bad is that they are not sustainable. In this context, sustainability indicates both ability to adhere to a diet plan over time and the ability to maintain weight loss over time. Evidence in a meta-analysis of 29 long-term weight loss studies found that after 5 years more than 80% of participants had regained the weight and some gained more than their original starting weight. This failure to keep weight off can be an outcome of physiological hormone responses in our body. After a period of time of eating fewer calories than you burn, your body will increase cortisol (stress hormone) and will increase ghrelin (hunger hormone). These hormone levels will slow down metabolic rate and will increase the drive to eat more food. After a while, it becomes close to impossible to resist the urge, thus we break the diet. These hormone systems can also be based on the set point theory, which states that each person has a predetermined body fat and weight range that best suits their genetics for survival. Any weight that is above or below this range will set off signals in the body to change mechanisms that will drive weight to go up or down to stabilize in the setpoint range.
Source: 11684524, 29156185, 30026913, 21677272
2. One Size Fits All Mentality
The next reason why fad diets are bad is that there is no one size fits all diet plan. Many studies have explored genetic variants in the body that can affect people’s sensitivity and responsiveness to certain nutrients. These genetic variants can increase or decrease the risk of disease, and they can impact absorption or metabolism rates when specific nutrients are consumed. This evidence along with taste preferences provides the argument that all people should not be consuming the same types of foods for the same outcome. These fad diets are bad because they sell the idea that all people who eat this ‘magical way’ will have x, y, and z benefits which is not the case. Furthermore, even if you took 2 people with the same height, weight, activity level, and gender, they could both have significantly different metabolic rates. Do not trust that a fad diet can predict how much you should eat.
FREE HAPPY HORMONE GUIDE:
3. Harms Body Image and Self Esteem
Another reason why fad diets are bad is that they can harm body image and self-esteem. One of the main reasons people start a diet is because they are unhappy with the way they look. They see transformations (which are usually fake) of people who succeeded on the diet, and they want to try. Unfortunately, most people fail on these diets and do not lose weight or they lose weight but slowly gain it back. This can leave people feeling defeated and not good enough. Being overly fixated on your body is harmful because it lowers your self-worth down to just an outward appearance.
4. Focus on Quick Weight Loss Results
Another reason why fad diets are bad is that they focus on quick weight loss results. This is damaging because quick weight loss is much harder to adhere to and keep the weight off, which leaves many people to cycle back and do the diet over again once they regain the weight. This is weight cycling, a pattern of gaining weight and then losing it, which has been shown to put cardiovascular pressures on the heart. The constant fluctuation of quick weight loss then quick regain can be more harmful than just remaining at a high weight.
Source: 32576318, 31089525, 21677272
5. Disordered Eating
Lastly, disordered eating is another reason why fad diets are bad. Disordered eating is when you engage in eating patterns that create an unhealthy relationship with food. These patterns include seeing food as calories, restricting types of food, binging on food, obsessing about each meal you eat, skipping meals, and working out to make up for the food you ate. When these patterns become intense and start to impact many aspects of your life, it can turn into an eating disorder. To live a healthy life, you need to make peace with food and see it as satisfaction and as a way to fuel your body. Bottom line: Eating does not take discipline or willpower, eating should be easy and nonstressful. Following fad diets will just make you fall into a spiral of weight cycling and poor self-esteem.
