Considering a Crash Diet? Read This First. 

13 Apr Considering a Crash Diet? Read This First. 

Posted at 19:33h in Weight Loss by

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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LINDA ROBINSON

Linda is our Practice Coordinator, helping to keep the clinic running smoothly.

 

Originally from Texas, Linda completed her MBA at SDA Bocconi in Milan. Linda has worked as a Strategy Consultant across multiple industries globally in cities including Kyoto, Paris, Chicago and San Francisco. She developed an interest in nutrition whilst volunteering for an organisation that provides cooking and nutrition education to children and families.

Linda is now settled in London with her husband, two children, and her very bouncy, sociable dog.

SARAH LAW

Sarah has worked with hundreds of clients over the past decade to help them live in a healthy body that they feel confident in.


Sarah spent a large part of her teens and 20’s as a professional dancer battling with orthorexia and an unhealthy relationship with food and her body. This created a desire to understand the human body more so she could finally cut through the confusion and end the cycle of yoyo dieting. This fuelled her passion to help other women do the same.

 

Sarah specialises in supporting women who are struggling to lose weight due to underlying health issues. She’s helped many women manage their weight during and after the menopause, as well as clients with thyroid disease and immune system dysfunction. Sarah loves food and sharing healthy recipes with her clients. Her aim is to ensure that clients don’t feel deprived and instead, achieve their weight loss and health goals in a positive and sustainable way.

 

To enquire about working with Sarah, please contact us.

AILSA HICHENS

 

Ailsa is one of our most experienced practitioners. She specialises in helping clients to lose weight, develop a healthy relationship with food and finally feel comfortable in their skin. Ailsa’s mission is for everyone she works with to enjoy the journey and that working with a nutritionist should not be a punishment, but your access to a new possibility.

 

Ailsa is not only an experienced weight loss nutritionist, she is also a skilled coach. She helps our clients overcome emotional eating, destructive habits and self-sabotaging behaviours that have prevented successful weight loss in the past. Ailsa has spent years in clinic working with clients who have experienced yo-yo dieting and have discovered that long term weight loss is not just about eating less until you can stand it no longer.

 

Working with Ailsa you will be comprehensively supported, not only in improving your nutrition and lifestyle, but also your eating habits and your relationship with food. When you work on all these elements together, the results can be truly astonishing.

 

To enquire about working with Ailsa, please contact us.

Test Nikki is our Practice Manager, managing our team of practitioners and heading up the day-to-day running of the business. Nikki is involved in the strategic development of our practice, coming from a strong business background in town planning. A Florida girl, Nikki relocated to the UK in 2014 with her husband and two children.

NIKKI ANDRIANI

Nikki is our Practice Manager, managing our team and heading up the day-to-day running of our clinic.

 

Coming from a background in town planning, Nikki is involved in the strategic development of our practice, continually ensuring we are delivering the very best service to our clients.


A Florida girl, Nikki relocated to the UK in 2014 where she lives with her husband, two children, and her rescue dog Skyy.

STÉPHANIE ACHAR

Stéphanie is a skilled nutritional therapist and functional medicine practitioner with additional training in eating disorders, disordered eating and obesity. She believes that working towards both physiological and mental health is key in achieving optimum wellbeing.

 

Stéphanie’s personal experience of emotional eating and the ongoing struggle to find the right support led her to combine the science of nutrition with behavioural coaching to motivate and empower her clients. She specialises in helping people who struggle with their weight and their relationship with food. She helps them develop a healthier and more peaceful relationship with food and their bodies.

 

To enquire about working with Stéphanie, please contact us.

INNA WEARN

Inna is passionate about supporting women on their journey to improved health and wellbeing. She believes that the solution to effective weight loss does not lie in ever more restrictive diets, but a more sophisticated approach that optimises health and vitality, as well as promoting effective weight loss.

 

Working with Inna you will benefit from her in-depth knowledge of female health and hormones. She will support you in developing a healthy diet, lifestyle and mindset that ensures you reach your ideal weight and maintain it in the years to come.

 

Inna is passionate about food with a wide repertoire of delicious healthy recipes and meal ideas to ensure your weight loss journey is as enjoyable as possible!

 

To enquire about working with Inna, please contact us.

ANIA MASON

 

Ania is a firm believer that improving your health and losing weight should be a positive, empowering journey, not one centred around deprivation.

 

After being diagnosed with two autoimmune conditions in her twenties, Ania spent several years educating herself on the power of food and nutrition. She put it all into practise and changed her diet and lifestyle, reversing her endometriosis and thyroid disease. After experiencing such a significant improvement in her health, Ania had a big desire to help others. She embarked on a four year journey to study nutrition, graduating from the Institute for Optimum Nutrition with distinction.

 

Ania specialises in autoimmunity and works with clients who have underlying health issues preventing successful weight loss. Her expertise enables her to successfully support our clients with conditions such as hypothyroidsm (underactive thyroid), PCOS and diabetes. 

 

To enquire about working with Ania, please contact us.

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