andrewThis may, at the beginning, look like some very naughty advice.
There are a lot of experts out there who give us the idea of going on a crash diet will be detrimental to our health. Well, yes if we were to keep on a crash diet for a long period it would in the long run begin to damage our health.
We would struggle to get the essential vitamins and nutrients in our body that should make it function correctly, and over time, we would become weak, lose muscle and our energy levels would all but stop.
But, and here’s the rub…going on a crash diet works, and there is no reason why it’s particularly unhealthy as long as it is only for a short period.
The crash diet explained
One of the biggest problems facing anyone who needs to go on a diet is the time factor. We need to lose weight NOW and see results at the end of the week.
Maybe we need to fit into a dress or suit for a special occasion, or maybe you are going on holiday and need to lose 6-10 pounds in a week. This can’t be done in such a small time frame when following a normal diet, so we get disheartened and don’t even try.
But following crash diets properly and only doing it for a short amount of time can do wonders not only for our body, but for our psyche also.
You will have to suffer throughout the week or fortnight to get there, but it will be worth it for whatever occasion you need to do it for.
It can also be the catalyst for a much more normal diet now your motivation has kicked in.
Let’s look at some of the diets around that allow you to lose significant amounts of weight in such a short period of time.
Which Crash Diet to Consider?
One of the most popular is the cabbage soup diet.
This is one of those extreme diets that you really have to want to lose weight quickly or it becomes so boring and unsatisfying that another day more than the time allotted would drive you insane!
This crazy diet is designed for just a week and will shed up to 10lbs from your body mass.
You can include in the soup, green onions and peppers along with canned tomatoes, celery, onion powder and seasonings such as salt, pepper, garlic powder and of course the main ingredient, cabbage.
This diet will at least allow some of the more important nutrients into your body and keep the calories so low that the body will burn off stored fat first.
It does work well and as long as you only stick to this diet for one week you will do no damage to your system. You will have hunger pangs, but just take an appetite suppressant to help you get through the week.
The second diet we look at is the Grapefruit diet.
This crash diet allows you to eat more than the cabbage soup diet, but only the right type of food. You must not eat any carbohydrates in the 10-14 days you will be on this severe diet.
You eat half a grapefruit with your meals of non-carbohydrate foods, so no potatoes, pastries, bread, cereals etc.
The idea is that the grapefruit will be the low carb portion of your meal and the meats, eggs and fish will be the protein part.
Grapefruit also is said to have fat burning enzymes that burn the stored fatty cells enabling you to lose weight very quickly. You just cannot have ANY carbohydrates in these 10-14 days.
Next we look at the Juice Diet as another form of crash diet.
This diet allows you do take all the essential nutrients and vitamins in liquid form. You can only intake the juice as your meals and only be allowed to be on this diet for about 10 days to the maximum.
You should see a weight loss of around 1-2lb’s a day. This can also act as a good detox diet cleansing your digestive system at the same time as rapidly losing weight.
Again, if you find yourself really hungry during this stage, try am appetite suppressant as a supplement to the juice diet.
Many people make their own juice drinks by going to the supermarket, buying the fresh fruit and blending in a juicer at home to really keep in the vitamins and nutrients. Fruit and vegetables which are recommended include Apple, Orange, Carrot, Celery, and Tomato, pineapple, lemon, cucumber, kiwi fruit, ginger and pear.
Next we move onto to the very low or no-carb diet that was so popular about 10 years ago.
The Atkins diet plan was so successful because it did what it said it would do on the tin. People lost weight so quickly the diet was hailed as a huge success. But, the problem was, it was not sold as a crash diet, it was sold as a way of eating…and that means you have to stay on this diet forever!
If anyone has ever been on the Atkins diet plan they will tell you how well it works, but then becomes almost impossible to keep up because of its boring and often tasteless foods that you have to eat.
That being said, if you can go 14 days without any carbs in your diet at all, you will lose a large amount of weight in no time. Losing 14lb’s is not uncommon when on the induction plan of the Atkins diet.
The people at Atkins have now realised the diet is so boring and so restrictive that they have come up with the Atkins-Lite diet plan where good carbs are brought in pretty early in the Atkins diet plan.
This is a sensible approach, because many people took the diet too far and almost turned into skin and bone!
How long for a crash diet
Of course, these crash diets are only meant to last one or two weeks…any longer and you’re asking for trouble. The body needs certain amounts of vitamins and nutrients a day to function properly; denying your body of these essentials can have problematic repercussions to your health.
What we see in a crash diet is the total lack of calories. Calories produce fat cells which, when not controlled, make you put on weight, but they also are your core energy supply, without them our metabolism would become redundant and you will become lethargic and start losing muscle mass instead of fat mass.
This makes you weaker and starts to have an effect on your psychological outlook. You become cranky, irritable and short tempered.
You may also lose the plot half way through your crash diet and go on a food eating binge which will do all sorts damage to your digestive system. As mentioned before, you can use appetite suppressants to keep the cravings at bay.
Also, please realize that most of the weight you will be losing is water retention and after you’ve finished your crash diet, you will need to maintain a healthy diet to avoid putting even more weight on almost as fast as you took it off.
After a Crash Diet
After the desired weight loss is achieved, keep the motivation going by replenishing your body with healthy meals and partaking in a little exercise. You now should be on the road to a healthier lifestyle.
