For the most part, we know what to do to lose weight. Put simply, we need to eat less and move more. But sometimes the newest diet trend seems too good to pass by. We can lose weight how quickly? Unfortunately, these dangerous fad diets are probably not the best way to approach our weight-loss goals. There is a better option.
What Makes a Diet a Fad?
There are plenty of diets out in the world, from juice cleanses to cutting out specific food groups. Sometimes, they’re warranted, like when you are vegan or have a food allergy. More often than not, however, people jump on a new thing because it’s new, it’s different. But that doesn’t mean it’s safe.
A diet is a fad if it fits into the following categories:
- You’re told you need to drastically cut back calories, so it’s basically a starvation diet.
- You have to take special pills, herbs, or powders.
- You can only eat certain foods or foods in certain combinations.
- You have to completely eliminate sugar, fat, or carbs.
- You have to skip meals or replace meals with a drink or bar.
How Are These Dangerous Fad Diets?
Your body needs a balanced diet with between 1,200 and 2,500 calories a day. You can get all (or at least most) of the vitamins and minerals you need from whole foods, so supplements shouldn’t be necessary. Just these two statements cut out a lot of fad diets while explaining why they’re dangerous.
But that’s not all.
When you drastically alter your diet, you send your body into a tailspin. And that certainly doesn’t help your metabolism, which relies on consistent signals to stay normalized and help your body burn fuel efficiently.
Why Fad Diets Are So Popular
Everyone likes the idea of getting great results with minimal effort. That’s what these dangerous fad diets promise. In fact, initially, they may seem to work—and that provides us with positive reinforcement! But those quick results could be the initial shock of cutting out major nutrients or calories.
When we realize that we will need to make a long-term lifestyle change to achieve the results we want, we get scared. Some people say they don’t have the willpower. So these fad diets offer hope.
Opt for Something Real—and Safe
Rather than going for dangerous fad diets that may or may not work, and that could potentially cause real damage, opt for slow and steady. It comes back to what we know: reduce your calories and increase your movement. However, you have to have a baseline.
It’s hard to know how much we’re really eating and moving throughout the day. As you look back at your day when you settle in for the evening, you may think you didn’t eat much and you were really running around, but is that the truth?
There are plenty of calorie and exercise trackers in the app store. MyFitnessPal is among the most popular, and it’s a free download. Something like this allows you to write down what you’re doing. Find out where you are, and then you’ll start to see how you can make changes.
CoolSculpting Is the Only Help You’ll Need
If you’re really looking for something that will help you get where you want to quicker (and that’s not a dangerous fad diet), we suggest CoolSculpting. This is certainly not a fad! The procedure is safe, FDA cleared, and non-invasive. In less than an hour, you’re on your way to freezing and eliminating excess fat cells.
Of course, as with any smart lifestyle, we do suggest that you include moderate exercise and a healthy eating program to get the most out of your CoolSculpting sessions. We don’t ask you to change the way you’re living your life, though, because that’s not what this is about.
So schedule your appointment now, and we’ll walk through this together. There’s no need for dangerous fad diets when you have real solutions.
