You might be one of those people who have tried to lose weights through crash diets or weight loss products only to regain much more weight after stopping their use.
Why? Losing weight and maintaining an ideal body weight is a process that requires dealing with the root causes of weight gain.
Although weight gain can be caused by factors that we have no control over such as genetic predisposition, research shows that majority of overweight individuals acquire their unhealthy weight from poor lifestyle habits such as poor nutrition and lack of exercise /physical activities.
Quick fix diets cannot enable you to lose weight permanently as they do not address the above root causes of unhealthy weight gain.
The moment you stop using your quick fix diet and return to your 'normal' eating habits, the body utilizes this opportunity as a defensive mechanism to store more energy inform of fat resulting to rapid regain of weight.
What most people do not know is that unlike other body cells, fat cells do not die.
They may lose fat and become all shriveled up, but they do not die.
Scary but so true!! They just wait for another opportunity to store fat.
The defensive mechanism of the body to store fat as instigated by quick fix diets allows for the creation of even more fat cells which might pose a great danger for you in the future.
Most often, crash diets are deficient in vital nutrients and as such, their long use leaves the body deficient in these nutrients.
Due to their general nutrient deficiency especially the vitamins, crash diets may lead to the weakening of the immune system, leaving the body susceptible to infections and diseases given the important role nutrients such as vitamins play in boosting the immune system.
So what is the way forward? You may ask.
Well, it is the old fashioned way; good nutrition habits and physical exercise.
For effective weight loss, good nutrition habits and physical exercise go hand in hand.
Good nutrition habits and physical exercise are very effective in enabling the loss of weight permanently since they address the root causes of weight gain which are mostly poor dietary habits and lack of exercise.
Adopting good nutrition habits and incorporating physical exercise into your life is not something that can be applied for a short period of time and discarded once you feel that you have achieved your desired weight.
Instead, it requires a permanent change in your poor lifestyle habits especially when it comes to what you eat and amount of physical exercise you put in.
You have to sit down and take a hard cold look at your poor lifestyle habits and make a determined resolution to replace them with good lifestyle habits.
This process just doesn't happen overnight.
As they say, poor habits die hard.
You will have to embark on a step by step journey towards eliminating these poor lifestyle habits.
For instance, if you are used to eating 4 sweets a day, reduce them to 3, 2, 1 and before you know it, you will be eating no sweets.
The same for exercise, if you have been a couch potato, start by taking a 15 min brisk walk twice or thrice a week around the neighborhood after which you can gradually increase it to 30 minutes walk 3 or 4 times a week.
This article has just shown you why you need to stop fooling yourself and avoid using the unhealthy quick fix/fad diets and embark on an immensely rewarding effort towards gaining better health through adopting good weight loss habits.
Remember to make your weight loss experience as fun as possible and always maintain a positive attitude even when you are not getting the desired results.
Be patient and work towards identifying and improving on areas that make you not to achieve the desired results.
All the best.