Maintaining a healthy weight is essential for overall wellness and longevity. Those who are overweight and obese can suffer from numerous health issues that can be rectified if the unwanted weight is lost. Going on a proper diet plan can help to lose the necessary weight, and maintain that healthy weight for life. However, there are many diet plans and unhealthy eating habits that can sabotage weight loss efforts and cause unhealthy side effects. Here are some negative effects to unhealthy dieting:

1 – Muscle Loss

Unhealthy dieting and eating habits can lead to muscle tissue loss. Diets that are extremely low in calories, or very low in protein can cause muscle tissue to be lost in addition to fat and fluids. Protein is essential to feeding the muscle. In addition, diets that are too low in carbs do not give the body the energy necessary to maintain proper activity levels, which can also cause muscle loss.

2 – Lack of Energy and Nausea

Diets that are far too low in calories and restrict certain food groups can cause fatigue, nausea, headaches, irritability and dizziness. Cutting out certain vital food groups, like carbs, can cause the body to lack the energy required for day to day activities.

3 – Binging

If you deprive yourself of certain foods, your body will crave certain foods in order to satisfy hunger pangs. Severe calorie restrictions and food restrictions can often lead dieters to overeat and binge during certain meals. If you allow your body to go hungry for an excessive period of time, you risk the possibility of binge eating. Your body needs a certain amount of calories and certain vitamins and minerals in order to function properly and feel satisfied. Failure to fuel your body with these necessary nutrients can increase binge eating habits, which can lead to weight gain.

4 – Weight Gain

When people go on a diet, their hopes are to lose weight, not gain it. Unfortunately, many eating habits and diet plans set dieters up for failure. Certain fad diets are not meant to be sustained for a long period of time due to their lack of nutrients and severe calorie restrictions.

Diets that are very low in calories and restrict certain food groups require dieters to gradually resume regular eating habits. If you go on one of these diets, and go back to eating a drastically increased number of daily calories, your body will gain the weight back. Your body needs time to adjust to going back to regular eating habits that will sustain your body for the long run. It’s best to only cut a few hundred calories per day and incorporate an exercise program so that your body can lose fat and build muscle tissue at the same time.

It’s important to select a diet plan that you’ll be able to maintain and stay on for how ever long it takes to lose the necessary amount of weight. Depriving your body of the necessary amount of calories and food groups can jeopardize your weight loss efforts.

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