- Severe and intentional restriction of the amount of energy consumed with food (calories). For example, it could be following a famous diet, or simply counting calories and setting rigid limits.
- Limit eating many types and eat the same type:
- low-carbohydrate diet: protein diet, Atkins diet;
- low-fat diet;
- diet fruit juice.
- Irregular meals:
- hourly diet;
- the 5: 2 diet (five days a week, we eat normally, and two days a week - we limit ourselves significantly in food);
- skip meals;
- "Fasting days", i. e. refusing to eat on certain days.
Who is on a diet?
Popular and popular diets. It is believed that about half of normal weight women have tried the diet. One study found that nearly 70% of 15-year-old girls are on a diet and 8% of them follow an extremely strict diet. Another study found that about 70% of women and 45% of dieters were not overweight and did not need to follow any diets.
The diet is preceded by dissatisfaction with your body and a desire to lose weight.
A UK study found that two-thirds of 14-15 year old girls and half of 12-13 year old girls wanted to lose a few pounds. Due to the stress associated with this, about a quarter of young girls skipped at least one meal a day.
Risks in the diet
Dieting increases the risk of eating disorders. Scientists have found that if teenage girls eat a moderate diet, their risk of developing an eating disorder is increased fivefold, and with a strict diet - timeseighteen times.
Regular, strict diets contribute to excess weight gain. 95% of those who followed the diet to lose weight gained more over the next two years than the diet's results. This is because during the diet, people are very limited in the number of calories and variety of foods, feeling constantly hungry. Perhaps for a short time, the dieter can ignore the hunger, but after prolonged fasting, the appetite increases and overeating occurs. This leads to feelings of guilt and failure, which can exacerbate dissatisfaction with yourself and your body. Some people live the same diet cycle throughout their lives - that is, the diet takes up a certain portion of their time and energy each day.
Additionally, the diet has been found to slow down metabolism - the rate at which calories are burned slows down.
Normal metabolic rate is restored some time after the person returns to a healthy and adequate diet.
A strict diet affects both mental and physical health. Bad breath, fatigue, overeating, headaches and cramps, constipation, sleep disturbances and possibly bone loss may occur.
Diets can change the body's natural response to food, needs, and appetite. A person no longer feels hungry and full, 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 by dieting. Also, many overweight people want to lose that extra weight and believe that diet will help them with this.
It is known that about a quarter of the world's population is overweight, but twice as many people want to lose weight.
They are on a diet with the desire to be slimmer. The worldwide pursuit of slim body has many reasons, one of which is equally fear of fat. It is revealed that such fear can already manifest in elementary school students. For some reason, in our society, wholeness is seen as something shameful and condemned.
Through advertising, the desire to diet is advocated in people by companies that focus on all things diet-related (diet, books, groceries, and other goods). Because we are in a highly lucrative industry, the diet industry is unusually optimistic about diets. In fact, it has been found that half of people who are on the diet will gain weight - a handful of them are able to maintain the weight lost as a result of the diet for 5 years.
The success of a strict diet depends on many physical and mental factors, and in the case of obesity, weight loss is not highly effective.