13 Apr Considering a Crash Diet? Read This First.
If you’re tempted by the promises of a quick fix crash diet, or other weight loss solution that seems too good to be true, there are some important things you need to know.
As a team of nutritionists who specialise in weight loss, we often work with clients who have tried crash diets in the past. These clients come to us with the desire to break free from the yo-yo dieting cycle and find a long term solution to managing their weight. The good news is that healthy, sustainable approaches to weight loss do not have to mean painfully slow progress. You can achieve effective weight loss without compromising your physical or mental health. Here, we’ll take a look at the dangers of crash dieting, popular approached to rapid weight loss and what to do instead.
Arrange your complimentary call with our team today to find out how we can help you to overcome your weight challenges, achieve your desired weight and maintain it long term.
IS A CRASH DIET A GOOD IDEA?
In short, no. Crash dieting can result in serious health problems. It can lead to inadequate nutrient intake, including micronutrients like vitamins and minerals, as well as vital macronutrients like healthy fats and protein.
Crash dieting can lead to nutrient deficiencies, weakened immune function, and electrolyte imbalances. Bone mass loss is a critical concern, as crash dieting deprives the body of essential nutrients crucial for bone strength, such as protein, calcium and vitamin D. This increases the risk of osteoporosis and fractures.
Drastically reducing calories without consuming enough protein is likely to lead to muscle loss in addition to fat loss, including vital muscle tissues like the heart. Not only is this detrimental for health, this will negatively impact your weight in the long run too. Insufficient protein intake, crucial for supporting muscle mass, can lead to a decrease in muscle mass. While this may initially appear as weight loss on the scale, it actually reduces metabolic rate, decreasing the body’s calorie-burning capacity. Consequently, returning to normal eating habits after crash dieting often results in weight regain.
Psychologically crash diets are not healthy either. Crash dieting often reinforces an all-or-nothing mindset. Individuals may embark on crash diets before events like holidays, only to overindulge during the event due to prior deprivation. This cycle of restriction followed by overeating can be detrimental to our mental health as well as our physical health and long term weight management.
Thinking about a programme like Slimming World? Read our guide here.
WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE TO A CRASH DIET?
You do not have to turn to extreme diets to achieve effective weight loss. You can lose weight safely, healthily and relatively rapidly while still ensuring your body gets all of the vital nutrients it needs. Consuming an optimal calorie intake for you is key. Ensure that you are in a calorie deficit but are still eating enough calories to provide your body with optimal fuel from the right sources. You don’t need to endure excessive hunger or fatigue due in order to lose weight.
Focus on minimising your intake of sugar, refined carbohydrates, and ultra processed foods. Base your meals around a portion of lean proteins, plenty of vegetables and salads, and a moderate amount of healthy fats. This will help you achieve weight loss steadily and sustainably. Take a look at our guide detailing how to structure balanced meals to support weight loss to learn more.
Many people find that tracking their food intake using an app like MyFitnessPal can help them moderate their calorie consumption while ensuring they also cover their body’s micro and macronutrition requirements.
It is essential for individuals with specific medical conditions or those taking certain medications to consult their healthcare provider before making any significant dietary changes.
Below we will take a look at some popular approaches to rapid weight loss, and share our expert views.
DO MEAL REPLACEMENT SHAKES WORK?
Meal replacement ‘shake and soup diets’ can be very effective, however, they are not created equal. There are some that are nutritionally far superior to others. These tend to be the ones that are provided by doctors and nutritionists and are based on high quality protein.
Meal replacements are generally low calorie but many are higher in carbohydrate and sugar and lower in protein than is optimal. In addition, the nutrients they provide are usually in poorly absorbed forms, rather than higher quality, more well absorbed forms. Picking a high quality meal replacement diet, that allows the consumption of low carbohydrate vegetables and includes healthy essential fats, is strongly recommended.
You can read our guide to soup and shake diets here.
ARE LOW CALORIE DIETS BEST FOR WEIGHT LOSS?
We do not recommend that individuals significantly reduce their calorie intake without paying close attention to the quality of food they are consuming. The widely promoted 800-calorie-a-day diet by Michael Mosley has become increasingly popular. But if you choose to cut calories to such low levels, it is crucial to ensure you are still meeting the body’s nutritional requirements. This includes consuming adequate protein to maintain muscle mass and sufficient fat required for the body’s functions, preventing issues like dry skin and other serious health complications.
Very low calorie diets may inadvertently lead people towards processed foods and ready-made products like sandwiches, as they simplify calorie tracking compared to preparing healthy meals from scratch.
ARE JUICE DETOXES GOOD FOR WEIGHT LOSS?
A juice detox may be good for weight loss in the short term, but they may not be as healthy as you might think. Juice detoxes often contain a surprisingly high amount of sugar. Even if the sugar is from fruit, it can dysregulate your blood sugar levels which is not supportive in the long run. Of course, fruit is healthier than a chocolate bar, but once sugar has been consumed, entered your gut and been absorbed into your bloodstream, the body can’t tell the difference.
While many juice recipes are high in naturally occurring sugars, not all are. Check out our Fennel and Basil Green Juice Recipe.
IS OZEMPIC BETTER THAN A CRASH DIET?
Weight loss injections like Ozempic do nothing to get to the root cause of why people gain weight in the first place. Sadly there are increasing numbers of clinics and doctors prescribing weight loss medications without providing their patients with dietary advice or supporting them with managing their weight in the long term. In most cases, these individuals are likely default back to old habits and gain the weight they have lost again as soon as they come off weight loss medications.
Read our guide to weight loss injections here.
WORK WITH US
We are a team of qualified nutritionists who specialise in weight loss. If you’re ready to overcome your weight challenges, achieve your goal weight and maintain it long term, we can help. You can use this link to book in for a complimentary call. This is an opportunity to talk through your challenges with a member of our team and decide together whether one of our Intelligent Weight Loss programmes is right for you. Or contact us to request a copy of our brochure and we will get back to you soon.
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