Healthy Eating - The Trap Of Chronic Dieting

One thing you must be aware of as you set out to lose weight and improve your health is chronic dieting. What is chronic dieting and could it be impacting you? Let's take a closer look...

What is Chronic Dieting? Chronic dieting is dieting at a very low-calorie intake for a prolonged period. Usually, most diets will last for about a month or two, and then you will have either reached your goal weight, or you will come off the diet for a short period. The problem is when you don't. Many people, especially those with more significant amounts of weight to lose, stay on a diet for months on end. Some have been dieting for so long it has now just become their 'healthy way of eating'. Only it's not healthy - it's near starvation.

What happens is when you first begin a diet plan, the calorie intake you use - a modest calorie deficit - starts producing results. GREAT! Then, however, your metabolic rate begins to adapt and slow down. Your body gets used to that amount of food, and sooner or later, the food selection is no longer producing the weight loss results you desire...

• you decrease your intake further. It is your only option to keep losing weight. You drop it again, and weight loss picks up.
• a few weeks later, weight loss is slowing. Now you have a choice, lower your calorie intake again or come off the diet. 

Many people will continue to lower their calorie intake further until they can no longer drop anymore. Now at this point, they are simply maintaining their weight as weight loss has stopped. Because they are managing their weight, they are now afraid to take in higher calorie food: they believe it will lead to weight gain. This is a big problem because they are now mainly surviving on far fewer calories than they should be and weight loss will have become virtually impossible.

The Impacts of Chronic Dieting. So what impacts do you need to know about? The typical signs and side effects include...

• the fear of eating too many calories: for example going out for dinner or introducing new foods into the diet plan.
• ongoing fatigue - never feeling energized.
• suffering from injuries that don't heal.
• having difficulty sleeping.
• always feeling hungry. 

If you feel like you are trapped in your diet plan, you are a victim of chronic dieting.

Getting Help. How can you get help? How can you get past this? The main thing you need to remember is change is in order. Unless you want to continue living on so few calories for the rest of your life, you need to be willing to make some adjustments. This means increasing your calorie intake and accepting what may be a temporary fat gain.

Yes, you may gain weight when you do this, and your metabolic rate adjusts. But, by raising your metabolic rate, you make it possible for you to lose fat when you lower your calorie intake again. Consider the alternative. Chances are you couldn't even drop fat right now if you tried.

Don't be afraid of taking this step. Sometimes increasing your calorie intake is what you need to get weight loss happening again. Think of it as one step back for two steps forward.

Although managing your disease can be very challenging, Type 2 diabetes is not a condition you must just live with. You can make simple changes to your daily routine and lower both your weight and your blood sugar levels. Hang in there, the longer you do it, the easier it gets.