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Short Diets for Weight Loss

Written by Sky Taylor, Diet Bites

Permanent Weight Loss Requires a Life Change

This popular diet has visited the homes and bodies of 50% or more dieters. But these days, people want results as quickly as possible.

This is how short diets work. They may last as little as one hour. 

The individual usually quits the plan before it ends because most are very limited in food and drink. They often look like this...

Short Diet Typical Menu

Note the void for snacks. On reduction plans that don't last for a considerable amount of time, snacks aren't generally included. And when they are, they are usually in the form of raw carrots, cucumbers or celery.

Breakfast Menu

1 piece of dry toast
black tea or coffee

The plan usually doesn't even recommend that the toast be a source of whole grain.

Lunch Menu

1 tin of tuna packed in spring water
1 boiled egg
3 Saltine crackers
water - so that the individual doesn't get choked on the crackers

Dinner Menu

1 cup of fat free broth
1 cup of raw vegetables
water

Really? Seriously? The amount of energy values contained in these fad diet plans aren't enough to keep a gnat alive - even a Texas-sized one.

Although ultra popular, these are plans that you want to TOTALLY avoid.  Imagine - going on a diet, then ending up gaining weight rather than losing. It's a nightmare, but it happens frequently. Too frequently.

Why Weight Gain Generally Follows Short-Term Diets

Here are some dieting tips that we hope will help you avoid the unproductive short-term dieting  AND as a note, if you are physically nesting, do not attempt any diet without your baby doctor's thumbs up. That goes for lactating moms as well.

If you find yourself going on a diet, then getting off the plan - no matter how short OR how long you've been on it, take special care not to go ballistic with food intake. At this point, your body is lodged in starvation mode. It wants - no, it demands food!

How Almost 100% of Failed Diets End

Do you know how almost-every weight loss plan ends? If you have ever been on one, think about your personal experience. How did your last diet end?

More likely than not, it ended with a binge. The dieter suddenly decides that they can't take dieting a day longer; they make a snap decision and rush to grab all the foods that they missed while they were on their short-lived weight loss plan.

Take note that the decision to end a diet is never a drawn-out decision. It's generally a knee-jerk reaction based on the tummy, the taste buds and the nostrils all ganging up together on the brain and declaring mutiny.

The individual may be at the movies - and the nostrils are teased with the aroma of hot buttered popcorn. With extra butter. So they wander over to the concession stand and order some. No, not the baby container. Not the medium or large on either. They get the jumbo, Godzilla sized container. With extra butter.

Or, it happens like this. They are at the store and somehow their shopping cart takes over; they are powerless to control it as it rages towards the bakery section at a heated pace, the rubber wheels of the cart, smoking.

They see all the goodies behind the glass; they also see a small container set out with freshly baked cheesecake with a sign attached that says, "Try Me". If would have been more accurate if it had read, "Kick Me". They take a taste and those taste buds go A-I-P, wanting another test sample.

But after the supervisor of the bakery casts them a warning look, they snatch up the large version of the cheesecake and rush from the market.

They may not even wait to get home to devour the cheesecake. Yes, all of it. Without a fork even. All that cheesecake laced around the mouth is one of the best feelings in the world. Until the dieter steps onto the bathroom scales and blows a spring or two. But at this point, the damage has been done.

Tips to Keep Weight Gain Away

On that note - monitor you weight EVEN if you aren't dieting. In this stage, you aren't monitoring weight loss or maintenance, rather control.

Hop on those bathroom scales; take note of the numbers and as you grab a tissue don't forget them. You must keep weighing and be very careful not to put on additional pounds - even if you currently have pounds to lose.

A noggin' was created for planning - so devise a bullet-proof reduction plan before setting out on the trail. Desserts and foods primed with fat are loaded for Diet Bear - so Dieter Beware.

Avoid fad plans, particularly those that limit food groups from the daily diet. Your body can only hold out for so long before zooming towards that hot buttered popcorn with the extra butter or that full-blown cheesecake which will do the same to your weight loss plan.

As we so often say: "Never, ever, never, ever give up trying to drop that excess fat!  YOU are worth all the effort!" 

 

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