Dieting Can Make You Fatter, Studies Show

For most of us, the whole purpose of dieting is to lose fat, not gain it. So how can this happen? The answer is simple : by weight cycling, that vicious cycle of losing-gaining, starving-overeating, and crash dieting.

Weight cycling is said to be unfavorable because the cycle of losing-gaining repeatedly slows metabolism down and makes weight loss more difficult with each successive diet. Data from the Framingham Heart Study shows that weight cycle dieters are more likely to suffer from heart disease, diabetes, possibly hormone-dependent cancers such as breast and endometrial cancer.

Another study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that women who indulge in this cycle of dieting-losing-gaining weight are now believed to show a higher preference for fatty foods. This explains why dieters have a hard time keeping their weight off: it is hard to resist the chocolate cake

or ice cream once you go off your diet! And the more high-fat foods they eat, the fatter they get. Studies show that fat taken in the diet is more readily converted into body fat.

Crash dieting is another practice of people trying to lose weight, eating about half or less than half of the calories you typically eat in a day. Crash diets usually starts at 800 calories and go as low as 400 calories a day. A 400-calorie diet is the equivalent of about 12 pieces of crackers and water or five servings of fruits or fruit juice for the whole day. The problem with crash dieting is you lose too much muscle and you slow your metabloism down. When you have less muscles, you burn less calories. Once you go off a crash diet, weight is easily regained because of a slower metabolism. And most of the weight that is regained is fat weight.

There are many obesity experts who believe that crash dieting does not work long-term. Because you have deprived yourself so much while following this rigid diet, that you are more likely to binge and overeat the moment you come off the diet. In addition, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests that very-low-calorie diets cause gallstones. According to health experts, the presence of fat in a normal diet, stimulates a hormone that causes the gallbladder to secret bile to help digest the fat. When there isn’t enough fat, the gallbladder retains bile which then gets concentrated into stones.