- Severe and intentional restriction of the amount of energy consumed with food (caloric intake). This could be, for example, following a well-known diet, or simply counting calories and setting rigid limits.
- Limiting the variety of foods and eating the same type of food:
- low carb diet: protein diet, Atkins diet;
- low fat diet;
- juice diets.
- Irregular meals:
- hourly diet;
- diet 5: 2 (we eat normally five days a week, and two days a week - significantly limit ourselves in the meal);
- skipping meals;
- "Fasting days, " i. e. , refusing to eat on certain days.
Who keeps the diet?
Diets are common and popular. It is estimated that about half of normal weight women have tried the diet. According to one study, nearly 70% of 15-year-old girls diet and 8% follow an extremely strict diet. Another study found that about 70% of women and 45% of dieters are not overweight and do not need to follow any diet.
Diet is preceded by dissatisfaction with your body and desire to lose weight.
A British study found that two-thirds of girls aged 14-15 and half of girls aged 12-13 would like to lose a few pounds. Due to the stress involved, a quarter of young girls missed at least one meal a day.
The risk of diet
Diets increase the risk of eating disorders. Scientists have found that if adolescent girls eat a moderate diet, the risk of developing an eating disorder increases fivefold and, with a strict diet, eighteenfold.
A frequent, strict diet contributes to being overweight. 95% of those who followed the diet gained more weight in the next two years than they lost as a result of the diet. This is due to the fact that during the diet people are very limited in the number of calories and variety of foods, they experience constant hunger. Perhaps for a short time, dieters can ignore hunger, but after long diets, there is increased appetite and overeating. This, in turn, leads to guilt and failure, which can increase dissatisfaction with yourself and your body. Some people live a similar dietary cycle throughout their lives - meaning the diet takes up a certain amount of their time and energy every day.
In addition, diets have slowed metabolism - the rate of calorie burning is slowing down.
Normal metabolism is restored after a period of time after a person returns to a healthy and proper diet.
Strict dieting affects both mental and physical health. Bad breath, fatigue, overeating, headache and cramps, constipation, sleep disturbances, and possibly bone loss may occur.
Diet can change the body’s natural reactions to food, needs and appetite. If one ceases to feel hunger and satiety, one can stop distinguishing emotional needs from hunger.
Why keep a diet?
Many people of normal weight consider themselves overweight and want to lose weight with dieting. In addition, many overweight people want to shed those extra pounds and think that diet will help them do that.
It is known that about ⅓ part of the world’s population is overweight, but about twice as many people want to lose weight.
They are on a diet of leaner desire. There are many reasons for striving for leanness worldwide, one of which is the common fear of obesity. It turned out that such fears could already appear in primary school students. For some reason, wholeness in our society is seen as shameful and condemned.
Through advertising, the desire to diet is supported by people for everything related to diet (diets, books, food and other goods). Because we work in a highly lucrative industry, the food industry is unnaturally optimistic about diets. In fact, they have found that half of dieters gain weight as a result - few of them are able to maintain the weight they have lost as a result of the diet for five years.
The success of a strict diet depends on many physical and mental factors, and in the case of obesity it is very ineffective in terms of weight loss.