Diet

 


Diet

Want to drop a few pounds before that big date on Friday? Feeling the need to lose weight to boost your athletic performance? Many people look for fast or easy ways to slim down at some point in their lives. And there are hundreds of diet plans out there to lure you. But before you choose between the all-juice diet and the no-carb diet, read on to find out exactly what these diets do - and don't do - for you.
What Are Popular Weight-Loss Plans and How Well Do They Work?
Commercial weight-loss plans typically fall into two categories: Those that drastically reduce a person's calorie intake or restrict the dieter to certain foods and those that require a person to take dietary supplements. Dietary supplements are usually pills, but they sometimes include special food bars or drinks.
Most of the popular diets on the market today rely on a person's natural tendency to want to lose weight quickly. They play into a desire for fast results, which is what happened to Jamie, 16, who followed a 5-day juice diet. Although Jamie lost the weight she wanted, a week later the scale showed she was back to her original weight.
It's quite common for people to quickly gain back all the weight they lose after a few days on a highly restrictive diet. Here's a doctor's answer on why: "The first thing to be aware of with quick weight-loss diets is that our bodies simply aren't designed to drop pounds quickly," says Steven Dowshen, MD, an expert in hormones and the endocrine system. In fact, doctors say that it's nearly impossible for a healthy, normally active teen or adult to lose more than about 3 pounds per week of actual fat from their bodies, even on a starvation diet.
So why does your scale tell you otherwise? "The trick these very low-calorie diets rely on is that your body's natural reaction to near-starvation is to dump water," Dr. Dowshen says. That means that most, if not all, of the weight you lose during the first few days on these diets is water, not fat. You may feel thinner, but you won't look it and you'll probably bounce back up to your original weight once you start eating normally again. "What these diet plans don't tell you is that your body will just suck this lost water back up like a sponge once you start eating more calories again," Dr. Dowshen says.