- Severe and deliberate limitation of the amount of energy consumed with food (caloric intake). For example, you could be following a familiar diet or simply counting calories and setting rigid 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 in food);
- skipping meals;
- "Fast days", that is, refusal to eat on certain days.
Who is on a diet?
Diets are common and popular. About half of normal-weight women are believed to have tried dieting. One study found that almost 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 are not overweight and do not need to follow any diet.
The diet is preceded by dissatisfaction with your body and the desire to lose weight.
A UK study found that two thirds of 14-15 year old girls and half of 12-13 year old girls want to lose a few pounds. Due to the stress associated with this, about a quarter of the girls skipped at least one meal a day.
Diet risks
Diets increase the risk of an eating disorder. Scientists have found that if adolescent girls eat a moderate diet, the risk of developing an eating disorder increases five times, and with a strict diet, eighteen times.
Frequent and strict diets contribute to excess weight. 95% of those who follow a 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, experiencing constant hunger. Perhaps for a short time, dieters can ignore hunger, but after long diets, increased appetite and overeating occurs. This, in turn, leads to feelings of guilt and failure, which can exacerbate dissatisfaction with you and your body. Some people live on a similar diet cycle their entire lives, meaning dieting consumes a certain part of their time and energy every day.
Also, diets have been found to slow down metabolism - the rate of calorie burning slows down.
The normal metabolic rate is restored some time after the person returns to a healthy and adequate diet.
A strict diet affects physical and mental health. Bad breath, fatigue, overeating, headaches and cramps, constipation, sleep disturbances, and possibly bone destruction can occur.
Diets can change the body's natural responses to food, needs, and appetite. A person stops feeling hungry and satiated, he can stop distinguishing his emotional needs from hunger.
Why do we go on a diet?
Many people of normal weight consider themselves obese and want to lose weight by dieting. Also, many overweight people want to lose those extra pounds and believe that diet will help them with this.
About a quarter 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 out of the desire to lose weight. The worldwide quest for thinness has many reasons, one of which is the equally common fear of gaining weight. It was revealed that this fear can already appear in elementary school students. For whatever reason, in our society, integrity is viewed as shameful and condemned.
Through advertising, the desire to go on a diet is supported in people by companies focused on everything related to diets (diets, books, groceries and other goods). Because we are in a highly lucrative industry, the diet industry is abnormally optimistic about diets. In fact, half of the dieters have been found to gain weight as a result; few of them can 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 very ineffective for weight loss.