Some experts believe that there is great value in crash diets despite nutritionists and doctors rallying against them for years. It all depends on which crash diet is used, how much weight is expected to be lost, and the overall health of the person who is trying to lose the weight. If crash dieting is approached in a manner which is sensible, better results can be yielded than the more conventional and slower dieting approaches. The essential key is being healthy, there are far too many approaches to dieting which put the dieter at tremendous risk.
Do Crash Diets Work?
Sustainability is the key to any diet. And for any crash diet that works, the person most still consume enough calories in order to maintain their health. It is a sign of a bad crash diet if the person cannot keep up. There have been studies done and comparisons have been made between small cuts in calorie intake and large cuts in calorie intake … 10% cuts as against 30% cuts. Half of those who took the 10% cuts in calorie intake did really well on the whole; the other half just couldn’t keep up the pace. The findings were that it was much more difficult to stick to calorie cuts which were small and were much more difficult to stick to then calorie cuts which were much larger.
The best crash diets are those which can be sustained for more than a few days. This really rules out some of the real find diets which last for only one week. If the dieter can lower their calorie intake every day to around 1200 cal, maintain a high protein, low GI healthy diet which includes plenty of fruit and vegetables, fiber, soups, lean meats and fish, they could have a weight loss of about 2 and a half pounds during a seven-day period. This is the safe amount of fat that anybody should try to lose. Over a couple of months, this could mean as much as 20 pounds.
The human body is only capable of doing so much and the wrong type of crash diet can be seriously harmful. There is so much advertising for diets which promise results that are quite miraculous. Overweight people are seduced by stories of celebrities who have gone through crash diets with results that are truly magical. Crash diets can be a kick start to any long-term diet. But common sense has to be used and a long-term approach is the only way to sustainably lose weight.