The rise of the Internet leads to health-threatening fads
On the Internet, there are thousands of miracle recipes, tutorials, infallible diets, and that’s not to mention the support groups for overweight people. This is good, because it promotes reflection, commitment and can even lead to a self-controlled weight loss of 10 to 15%. But for how long? That’s a different story.
Drastic diets upset the metabolism and can cause bulimia
Obesity experts will tell you that fad diets often backfire on their original purpose. Instead of overcoming overweight or obesity, compulsive fasting disrupts the metabolic regulatory mechanisms of taste and satiety. They thus lose all food control and succumb to the Sirens of bulimia, regaining the lost weight with, as a bonus, a discouraging feeling of failure.
Severe dietary restrictions are not a viable solution
Human beings need food to live, and, for this purpose, they need a supply of various nutrients. Severe restrictions or the exclusion of certain classes of food are not sustainable over time. They are mostly associated to abstract choices rather than to medical and nutritional reality.
The result: uncontrollable weight gain, known as the “yo-yo effect”
It is indeed easier to lose weight than to keep it off. Small victories are therefore often short-lived. To avoid “playing yo-yo” on the scale for years, you must therefore modify your lifestyle in a determined, adequate, and sustainable way.