- Severe and deliberate limitation of the amount of energy consumed with food (caloric intake). For example, it could be following a well-known diet or simply counting calories and setting strict limits.
- Limit the variety of foods and eat the same type:
- low carbohydrate diets: protein diet, Atkins diet;
- low-fat diets;
- juice diets.
- Irregular meals:
- hourly diet;
- diet 5: 2 (five days a week we eat normally and two days a week - we limit ourselves significantly on food);
- Skipping meals;
- "Fast days" ie refusal to eat on certain days.
Who is on a diet?
Diets are common and popular. It is believed that about half of normal-weight women have tried dieting. One study found that nearly 70% of 15-year-old girls are on a diet and 8% of them are on an extremely strict diet. Another study found that approximately 70% of women and 45% of dieters are not overweight and do not need to follow a diet.
The diet is preceded by dissatisfaction with your body and the desire to lose weight.
A UK study found that two-thirds of 14- to 15-year-old girls and half of 12 to 13-year-old girls want to lose a few pounds. Due to the stress associated with it, about a quarter of girls skipped at least one meal a day.
Diet Risks
Diets increase the risk of an eating disorder. Scientists have found that if teens eat a moderate diet, the risk of developing an eating disorder increases fivefold and, with a restricted diet, eighteenfold.
Frequent, rigid diets contribute to being overweight. 95% of those who diet to lose weight gain more 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 greatly limit the number of calories and the variety of dishes, leading to constant hunger. Perhaps for a short period of time, dieters can ignore hunger, but after long diets, increased appetite and overeating occur. This, in turn, leads to feelings of guilt and failure, which can exacerbate dissatisfaction with yourself and your body. Some people live on a similar diet cycle - that is, the diet consumes a certain amount of your time and energy every day.
In addition, diets have been found to decrease metabolism - the rate of burning calories decreases.
Normal metabolic rate is restored some time after the person returns to a healthy and proper diet.
A strict diet affects mental and physical health. Bad breath, fatigue, overeating, headaches and cramps, constipation, sleep disturbances, and possibly bone destruction may appear.
Diets can change the body's natural responses to food, needs and appetite. A person ceases to feel hunger and satiety, he can stop distinguishing his emotional needs from hunger.
Why do we diet?
Many people of normal weight consider themselves overweight and want to lose weight on a diet. Also, many overweight people want to lose those extra pounds and believe that diet will help them with that.
About ⅓ of the world's population is known to be overweight, but about twice as many people want to lose weight.
They are on a diet for the desire to lose weight. The worldwide quest for thinness has many reasons, one of which is the equally common fear of getting fat. It was revealed that this fear can already appear in elementary school students. For some reason, in our society, integrity is considered shameful and condemned.
Through advertising, the desire to diet is sustained in people by companies focused on everything related to food (diets, books, groceries and other products). Because we are in a highly profitable industry, the diet industry is unusually optimistic about diets. In fact, it has been found that half of dieters gain weight as a result - few of them are able to maintain the weight 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 obesity, it is highly ineffective for weight loss.