Why Dieting Makes You Fat

By Jago Holmes

A wedding, a big night out, a holiday, a birthday, Christmas parties all have one thing in common, they all make us want to look our best. It is inevitable that when a special event comes along we all want to look as good as we possibly can do.

Sometimes this can prompt a shopping trip for new clothes, a trip to the hairdressers or a few sun bed sessions. If it is a really big occasion like your own wedding or a big birthday like a thirtieth or fourtieth then a much greater attempt will be made to look good for the day and this is more often than not done through shedding a few pounds by the way of a good old diet.

Diets come wrapped in many guises these days from the Atkins to the GI diet. All these diets have a number of things in common, firstly they all restrict calories, secondly they all generate huge incomes for their companies and thirdly they will all leave you fatter than you were before you started the diet in the long run.

Add to this the feelings of hunger during and guilt at the end of it then you really have a concept that you’d be better off avoiding than going through on a regular basis. But the worst effect of dieting is the long term weight gain almost always gained during the in between times.

So why do diets make you fat?

When food is restricted over a period of time your body responds by slowing itself down, in order to conserve energy, its main concern is maintaining the function of your internal organs and brain etc which without food it can not do. The metabolic rate is the first thing to slow down, this is the rate at which calories are burned to carry out every day tasks.
Energy levels take a nose dive, you’ll feel less inclined to be active and as result of this you’ll burn off even fewer calories.
Your body will start to cannibalise its own muscle protein as a reserve energy store and with a reduction in muscle the metabolic rate slows down still further and will remain slow until that muscle is regained.
The body gets starved of essential nutrients which trigger cravings and an increased appetite. Hunger craving can become so strong that you feel ravenous.
In an attempt to store more energy there is an increase in the activity of fat storing enzymes which means you will find it much easier to store fat.

What happens when you stop the diet?

Because of muscle wastage during the diet you will have a much slower metabolism. Muscles burn calories to simply exist whereas fat doesn’t, it just sits there. You must create a need for muscle it won’t simply grow back and this ultimately slows down the metabolic rate dramatically, leaving you storing much more fat as opposed to burning it.
You continue to crave all the wrong sorts of foods in an attempt to get as many vitamins, minerals and nutrients back in to the body and therefore eat a much higher calorie diet which leads to storing more fat.
Because your body still thinks it is being starved initially following a diet you will store any excess calories much more readily hence the saying “ I only have to look at a cream bun to gain weight”.
Your self respect, esteem and confidence goes when the weight creeps back on and there is a tendency in today’s society to eat to feel better and this makes matters even worse.

95% of the people who lose weight from conventional diets can’t keep it off. I am not saying that you shouldn’t try to lose weight if you need to but in order to be successful it should be gradual and controlled through making small adjustments in your overall diet over an extended period of time. To get maximum benefits a healthy diet should be combined with a regular pattern of exercise.

Instead of a quick fix diet look for a long term solution. In my next column I will be suggesting an easy to follow eating plan which is healthy, safe, easy and effective.

About the Author:

Jago Holmes is a fully qualified YMCA personal trainer, registered on the REPS scheme, with 3 exclusive one to one studios, specialising in weight loss. He can be contacted via his website www.anewimage.co.uk

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Why Dieting Makes You Fat

By Jago Holmes

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