March 5, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
So now we get to the final part of our report on why starvation diets are dangerous and should be avoided in favour of more sensible dieting. I firmly believe in empowerment through education, and by educating people as to the dangers of starving themselves they have the power to make much healthier choices.
Before we move on to what those healthier choices are, there is one more step your body will take in reaction to trying to starve yourself thin:
A Body On The Verge Of Breakdown
As discussed, the body will first use up the stores of glycogen in the liver to provide glucose energy before turning to breaking down the protein that makes up muscle mass. The next step is for your body to start to try and conserve enough muscle to quite simply stay alive!
After about a week of starvation the body will learn to use stores of fat as fuel instead of muscle, by breaking them down to create glucose. When fat is metabolised into glucose, ketones are produced. These ketones will build up after a lengthy period of starvation, eventually turning toxic.
This toxic waste is dumped in the liver, which will struggle to cope with the increased levels of toxicity. This will cause vital bodily functions carried out by the liver to slow down or stop completely, resulting in a condition called “Ketosis”.
When a person suffers from Ketosis they will experience symptoms such as vomiting, nausea, bad breath, constipation and chronic fatigue. In the long term a sufferer may experience kidney damage, loss of bone mass and possible heart disease. Additionally, the lack of vital nutrients caused by a starvation diet will begin to show on the surface. The hair, nails and skin will all start to deteriorate eventually and your physical appearance will suffer terribly.
The Best Alternative To Starvation Dieting
The safe and sensible solution here is also the most effective. A combination of healthy eating habits combined with some easy exercise routines will not only help you shed the pounds, but allow you to stay at your optimum weight year after year.
A few good tips include:
Eating a little often. Smaller more frequent meals help keep your metabolism going throughout the day. If this is impractical for you then try a healthy snack between meals to keep your body ticking over.
Don’t skip breakfast. The one period of the day when you can’t keep your metabolism revved up is while you are sleeping. Therefore, eating breakfast gets your body off to a calorie burning start that you can keep going all day.
Cardiovascular exercise. These types of exercises (jogging, swimming ,cycling, aerobics etc) are excellent fat burners. Not only that, but the effect will keep going for several hours after you stop.
Build muscle mass. Remember in Part 2 we talked about the energy burning ability of muscle? Building up more muscle mass will turn your body into a 24 hour calorie burning machine!
For a great well balanced WeightLoss Program visit this link.
Disclaimer: Ordering through the links on this site will help pay for the countless hours spent writing and promoting this website. Thanking you for your support!
Popularity: 13% [?]
February 28, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
Before you start any diet, it is important to be aware of any potential dangers that may come about as a direct result. And with a starvation diet this is doubly important.
We have already looked at how trying to starve yourself thin can place the body under undue stress, how Hollywood style diets put you in the dangerous cycle of yo yo dieting and why people with medical conditions are more at risk of serious complications. If that wasn’t enough to put you off, here are more reasons you might want to think again about that starvation diet you looked at:
Starve Your Body For Slower Weight Loss
We have already looked at how the body will turn to the stores of glycogen in the liver as an emergency source of glucose for energy. The trouble is that the liver only stores enough glycogen to provide energy for 1 day. So if your starvation diet lasts for longer than a day your body needs yet another back up source of energy, and this back up source is muscle.
The body will use muscle to produce the glucose it needs as energy, slowly reducing the overall amount of muscle you are carrying. Because the amount of muscle you have sets the rate at which you burn calories (your metabolic rate), the more muscle used up to create glucose the slower your body will get at burning calories.
There are lots of 2 or 3 day diets that claim to burn only fat, the truth is they only burn away metabolically active muscle tissue leading to slower weight loss. And the result of starvation dieting for about a week is that 30 percent of the weight loss is muscle and the rest is fluid.
Muscle has the ability to burn calories whilst the body is inactive, even when sleeping, because it needs to consume energy just to maintain the muscle mass. By reducing the amount of muscle you have, starvation dieting can be detrimental to the calorie burning efficiency of the body.
Starve Your Body And Gain Weight!
Regularly skipping meals in order to promote weight loss also has the opposite effect on your overall weight. The body will recognize that it is not getting regular meals and start to store calories, instead of burning them, to ensure there is enough energy to get through the next period of starvation.
The bad news for starvation dieters doesn’t end there either. When normal eating habits are resumed and regular calorie levels achieved, weight gain will occur faster than previously and will consist of more fat than before. This is because your metabolic rate is much slower than before, meaning you could end up weighing more than when you started. Also, the lost muscle will not miraculously reappear again, you are going to have to start exercising to get that back!
To learn about a great weight loss diet program which would help you lose weight fast and keep it off visit this link.
Disclaimer: Ordering through the links on this site will help pay for the countless hours spent writing and promoting this website. Thanking you for your support!
Popularity: 13% [?]
February 24, 2010 by admin · Leave a Comment
The starvation diet is a relative new comer to the weight loss table, although fasting for religious reasons has been around for centuries. Our modern day obsession with quick fixes has turned this practice of exercising self discipline as a token of respect to God into a trendy way to lose weight quickly. The question is, does it actually work for long term permanent weight loss?
Here are some facts you should know before you consider trying to starve yourself thin:
The Stress Factor
By starving yourself and not consuming enough calories to allow your body to carry out its most basic of functions, you will be putting your body under enormous stress. In order to keep you alive by keeping the heart beating and your lungs breathing, your body will be forced to draw on its own reserves for energy. Putting your body under this amount of stress is a price too high to pay for weight loss, and will eventually lead to ill health if maintained for a long time.
Yo Yo Dieting
The popular Hollywood style diets that claim you can lose 10 pounds in two days are a sure-fire way to yo yo dieting. The reason is that these diets cause weight loss through forcing the body to lose large amounts of fluid. Because the body needs glucose as the main energy source, these diets restrict your intake of glucose forcing your body to use the reserves of glucose that is stored in the liver as glycogen.
The glycogen stores in the liver also contain water, so when the glycogen is broken down into glucose for energy, this water is no longer needed and is released into the bladder. It is this fluid loss that causes rapid weight loss. When you return to your normal diet, the glycogen stores will be replenished along with the water and you will return back to your previous weight.
People With Other Health Issues Beware
Trying to starve yourself thin can be dangerous for even the most healthy of people out there for several reasons. For anyone with a pre-existing medical condition, the dangers of starving yourself leading to a serious medical problem are many times more apparent. In particular, anyone suffering from diabetes, liver or kidney disease, chronic heart disease or any kind of infection should never consider a starvation diet due to the complications that can occur. Pregnant women should also stay well clear of any diet that does not provide essential nutrition for themselves and the child they are carrying.
For a great well balanced WeightLoss Program visit this link.
Disclaimer: Ordering through the links on this site will help pay for the countless hours spent writing and promoting this website. Thanking you for your support!
Popularity: 13% [?]