We’re here to give you some great news! There are plenty of reasons as to why you actually shouldn’t go on a diet! Yes, you heard that right – there’s no need for you to try out that cabbage soup diet you’ve been putting off for so long or to crank out your blender to get cracking on a seven-day detox. Forget it all – and here’s why!
Your Metabolism Suffers
Dieting is all about restricting your caloric intake. In essence, it works on the principle that if you burn more energy in the day than what you put into your body, you will lose weight. This works well because it is science. But do you know what else is science? Your metabolic rate. If you restrict your eating for the right amount of time, your system will start to restructure itself, and it will adapt to this lower restricted calorie intake. This means that after you have lost the weight you wanted to lose, you won’t be able to go back to eating your normal caloric intake without putting your weight back on. The idea of being healthy is reaching your goal weight and still getting the calories you need to function at your best. So keep eating – and get moving! Don’t severely restrict your calories. Instead, drop your intake only a little, and choose quality calories over those you get from junk food. You will still see results, and you will be healthier.
Your Relationship With Food Suffers
The moment you label a food as ‘bad’ you are subconsciously asking yourself to begin craving it. Somehow, it is just the way the body works. The more you refrain from eating a certain type of food, the more it will be on your mind. The thoughts will consume you and you could actually fall into depression or develop an eating disorder – that is how serious a bad relationship with food can become. Falling off your diet plan is natural. If you are severely restricting yourself, you will end up bingeing on all the food you labeled ‘bad’ – and we bet that’s a lot of bad food! So shift your focus from stopping what you eat and refocus on eating more of what you should be consuming. If you’ve eaten a bowlful of salad, you will probably be so proud of yourself that you will only need a small piece of that chocolate bar to satisfy your sweet tooth! Everything in moderation. Allow yourself to indulge – but just a little bit.
Your Health Suffers
How strange is it that you actually decide to go on a diet to be more healthy, but actually, you’re leading yourself to worse health. It is true. Take a look at the biggest fad diets out there – there are crazy things like the potato diet where you eat nothing but potatoes or the juice diet where you sip on juice all day. These diets starve your body of nutrition and leave you unsatisfied and your body deteriorating. The better choice to make here is if you follow a balanced diet. Make sure that whenever you eat, you are getting the right portion size and the right balance of macronutrients on your plate. Forget about the fad diets, they’ll leave you back to square one, ultimately!
Your Social Life Will Suffer
Nobody wants to be around the cranky person who can’t stop thinking about all the food they need to stay away from. You won’t be fun to be around with if you are consumed by thoughts of food or if you are looking at everyone’s plate and pointing out how many calories they’re eating. And you certainly won’t be able to socialize very well if you’re lacking the energy to get out in the first place. Dieting can leave you crabby and weak. And it makes it hard to go out and look at your friends and family enjoying their slices of cake, burgers, and their frothy milkshakes when you’re poking at a green salad and sipping on sparkling water. Truth.
So if you’ve been storing a whole load of diets you want to try bookmarked on your browser, give it a rest. Follow a healthy, balanced diet and commit to regular exercise. It sure won’t be the overnight makeover that you were promised, but it is sustainable. Make healthy living a lifestyle choice, not a binge!