The Madness Diets

They are simply the quick fix diets - the ‘lose weight in extreme amounts’ diets. But be warned - they come with extreme consequences.

They are simply extremely low calorie diets that basically make you ‘self cannibalise’.  In simple terms, your body starts to eat itself, which is not very nice.

Examples of these are the 2,4,6,8 diet which allows you to eat 200 kcal the first day 400 the next then 600 then 800, following which you fast for a day and start the process again.

Meal replacement diets allow you to consume 800 kcal per day through 100 products (which are expensive) and once you start to eat normally again you’re going to put all that weight back on. Extreme weight loss will likely lead to sagging skin as it doesn't have time to adjust to the decrease in body mass. With these extreme diets, the major worry has to be the damage you can do to your thyroid gland.  If this starts to malfunction, weight loss will become almost impossible and you'll be popping T3 (thyroxine) supplements for the rest of your life.

The list goes on with these diets and they are simply 100% not worth the cost, whether that is in terms of finance or health.

Okay, so what is the answer?

It’s really to eat a healthy, balanced diet (including low GI carbs, protein and ‘good’ fats), eat in moderation and don’t over indulge.  If you want to activate weight loss, decrease your calorie intake by 500 kcal per day but don’t cut out one of the food group, so the daily guidelines for a woman are 2000 kcal - drop it down to 1500 kcal.  For a man, daily guidelines are 2500 kcal - drop it down to 2000 kcal.

One way to change your eating habits is to try a reverse pyramid - so have your biggest meal in the morning and decrease the size as the day goes on (the reason being activity generally lessens as the day goes on) and your evening meal becomes your smallest.

Eat fat to lose fat? Healthy fats are essential for overall health; not just weight loss. The body uses fatty acids to perform key functions for our brain, heart, lungs and eyes. They also help build cell membranes and keep the overall functioning of the body working correctly. Examples of foods with healthy fats are Monounsaturated and Polyunsaturated fats as well as Omega 3's and Omega 6's. These fats include but are not limited to olive oil; canola oil; fish oil (eat more salmon etc); flax seed or oil; almonds and other nuts; nut butters (peanut, almond, cashew) and avocados.

Decrease the amount of refined foods such as white sugar, bread and rice as they get burned up very quickly and then you’re hungry again.

Increase the amount of fibre in your diet as this will make you full fuller as well as giving you tones of health benefits. And last but not least, increase your activity levels: we want to replace that fat tissue with lean tissue and increase your metabolic rate so your weight loss is permanent.

Remember - we want weight loss for life, not just for after Christmas.