Why Crash Diets Don't Work

Research clearly shows that crash diets don't work.

This is because by drastically reducing your calorie intake (crash dieting), you’re actually reducing the rate your body can burn calories. If your aim is to lose weight, then dramatically reducing your intake of energy (produced by food) over a short period of time is not the way to go.

When you crash diet your body uses up its carbohydrate stores (known as glycogen) in the liver and muscles. Because water is stored with glycogen in the body, you will lose weight quickly. However, most of this weight loss will be water and muscle. Because muscle is directly related to your metabolism your body will end up burning calories at a slower rate than normal.

People who crash diet, tend to put weight back on quicker than those who follow a long-term healthy eating plan. This is because once you've stopped your crash diet your slow metabolism will not be able to process the increase in calories. These calories will be stored as fat meaning you end up putting on more weight than when you started.

If you crash diet you may lose weight quickly, but you are unlikely to keep it off.
Once you have lost weight, you will still need to change your eating habits for good, to prevent piling the pounds back on.

Crash diets also weaken your willpower.

(National Health Service - online)

The Path of Least Resistance

The difference between where a path goes and where it takes you is simply your responses to the challenges you face on the way.

Do you find yourself resisting the truth of what is right now? (your current health, body shape, eating habits, lifestyle)

Do you yearn for what can never be? (a genetically different body shape, more hours in the day, a metabolism that allows you to eat 10,000 calories, not exercise and not gain weight)

Do you find yourself responding to these and your daily stresses and emotions through food, drink, self defamation?

Do you enthusiastically start new diets only to discover a month or two down the line that not only have you given up but you've gained more weight again?

If so Then you may be ready to take the path of least resistance.

How?

Taking the Path of Least Resistance in relation to your health, body and relationship with food is about Accepting the truth about who and where you are right now, raising your Awareness about your habits and the underlying triggers that keep you from maintaining a healthy relationship with food, and then taking Action in manageable steps to reach your goals. These are the guiding principles of The Conscious Eating coaching program, to join a telecourse or arrange for your own individual personalised sessions e-mail me.

Coaching Question
So if you were to take the path of least resistance in relation to your health, body or relationship with food, what three things would you need to do differently?

E-mail me your answers and receive your FREE Conscious Eating Introductory Pack.

This puts a new angle on the term Conscious Eating