Most of the time, when people diet they focus solely on bringing down their weight, often at the detriment of their health. It’s gotten so bad that most people now assume that dieting will automatically make them feel unhealthy, weak and sick and as a result, many people don’t even bother to try. At our clinic, we emphasize that these crash diets are not what dieting is about, and teach patients how to lose weight in a healthy, non-painful way.
The first and foremost goal when losing weight is to be healthy: being healthy means a faster metabolism and better circulation, which is necessary for the effective use of calories. The problem with crash diets is that they send your body into what we call ‘starvation mode’. In this mode, it cuts down the number of calories it uses because it’s afraid that it won’t get enough later. When crash dieting, the goal is to cut the amount of calories so that your body uses its fat stores and you lose weight. However, because your body goes into starvation mode, you don’t actually use the fat—you cut the amount of calories that your body spends, and don’t lose anything at all.
Think of it this way: fat stores are like your body’s personal savings. Your body’s metabolism—or daily calorie usage—is like its budget and the food you consume is like its income. If you suddenly cut back severely on your food consumption, it sends your body into a panic just like you would if you suddenly lost your job. If you have doubt about your future income, you’re going to reduce your budget so that you don’t lose your savings, right? The body is the same way: if it’s suddenly worried about getting its next meal, it’s going to cut the number of calories it uses and try to save everything it can.
This leads to the many pitfalls we see in dieting. Because your body is cutting the number of calories it uses, you have less energy. You’re tired all the time, and your body is less equipped to fight off sickness. Exercise is suddenly out of the question, and within a few weeks you’ve caught a cold. Who wants to diet if that’s the outcome? As a result, many people don’t diet at all.