How To Identify Any Crash Diet

They are lurking out there and you may feel helpless in their midst—the growing number of crash diets can be overwhelming! You may have the very best of intentions, but these diets will almost always end in weight loss sabotage. Not only will you never reach your goals but you will also find that some of these diets can actually wreak havoc on your health in the process. So how can you identify them and ensure that they don’t trip you up or cause you long term problems?

Though some come in hard to recognize packages, there are a lot of common traits to a crash diet. You may want to believe that this time is different, but deep down you know if something is being asked of you that seems ridiculous. You will find that you can stay engaged and dedicated at first, but in the end, you will almost always end up falling off track. It’s not your fault, but rather the fault of a terrible diet that was never intended to support you in the long term.

So how can you be sure to identify a crash diet? Are there some common identifying factors that you can be on the lookout for? Though they may come to you in a variety of different ways and approaches, these criteria will help you to identify a crash diet and ensure that you never fall for one of these again. Being aware of what a crash diet is can also open your eyes as to why exactly these never work for you in the long term.

It uses deprivation in any form: Deprivation can come at you in so many different ways, but the end result is always the same. If you are asked to drastically cut calories, cut out food groups, or to avoid certain foods forever more, then you are not going to stick with this. It’s unrealistic that you will never have chocolate again or that you will never enjoy a little splurge. If you feel deprived on any diet, you will always give into temptation—and we all know that means you end up worse than you were before!

It forces you to follow some extreme measure: If you are asked to write down everything you eat every single day, that’s a bit extreme. If it asks you to perform a crazy cleanse or to consume nothing but liquids for a certain amount of time, then it’s not good for you. Any extremes usually indicate that it’s a crash diet and it will leave you off worse than when you started. Don’t fall for the gimmicks!

It asks you to only eat just a few selected foods: They come in many different forms like “The Cabbage Soup Diet” or “The Grapefruit Diet” but they are never a good thing. Are you really going to eat only these foods for the rest of your life? Even if you get a jump start on your weight loss, you will end up gaining it back when you return to normal—and so this will never support you!

It’s not something that you could viably see yourself doing six months from now: Take a step back and evaluate if you can see yourself doing this six months or a year from now. Do you think you’ll write everything you eat down forever? Will you never eat another carb again? Is it possible to live only on a cleansing ritual for an extended period of time? Can you see never eating breakfast again and only drinking a shake? Evaluate the longevity of it, and you will have your answer very quickly.

It makes you feel far too hungry or compromises your health: If you are starving or if you find yourself getting light headed or dizzy, then something isn’t working. A crash diet may help you initially, but it can also leave you with compromised health. It should never be that way so take note of what something will do to your health and avoid going down the wrong path. Your health comes first and foremost, so keep that in mind and you’ll never fall for another crash diet again.

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