The Dangers of Extreme Dieting

Extreme dieting is a consequence of dieting improperly and pushing the limits of your body well beyond its capabilities. All diets usually begin the same way. A person has noticed and been bothered for quite some time by their weight gain. Finally, it gets to be too much, and said person decides to lose some pounds by going on a diet. There is a healthy way to diet and an unhealthy way also. The unhealthy way of dieting is extreme dieting, which can also be called crash dieting or, in really extreme cases, all-out fasting. Extreme dieting is not something to try, as it has numerous dangers associated with it.

For Rapid Weight Loss

People who suffer psychologically from body image issues and feel the need to lose a lot of weight quickly are the ones to usually try extreme dieting. The main tenet of extreme dieting is the severe limiting of calorie intake. Because of the severity of the limiting of calorie intake, extreme diets are almost the same thing as starvation, differing only slightly. Due to this perilous approach, even people who go on extreme diets do so with the understanding that it should only be at the most a very short-term commitment. Ironically, people who go on an extreme diet with the belief that they can lose weight quickly are in for a shock because extreme diets have the opposite effect. Extreme diets cause a slowing down of your body's metabolic rate. What results from that is that more weight is gained after the extreme diet is ended.

Consequences

The consequences of extreme dieting are not pretty, as they all involve debilitating effects on your body; in some cases, some consequences may even be a threat to life itself. The consequences are so extreme that they involve both physical as well as mental degradation, a true debilitation. On the physical side, consequences of extreme dieting are physical fatigue; continuous hunger pangs; sinus problems like post-nasal drip; bloodshot eyes; gallbladder disease; rashes; atrophy of your muscles; seizures; malnutrition that may lead to dying; dehydration; acidosis; constipation; and a regaining of the lost weight after the diet. On the mental side, consequences are irritability, depression, lower sex drive, and the risk of being vulnerable to more eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia.

Fasting

Because of the abrupt and near-absolute reduction of food intake during an extreme diet, it is very close to all-out fasting in its methodology. Sometimes during extreme dieting, you are in fact going to be absolutely abstaining from food for a specified period of time, which in and of itself is practically the definition of a fast. Extreme diets may differ from all-out fasting in only one area, which is the intake of liquids. Fasting usually involves the deprivation of food and drink, while people who go on extreme diets may still drink a little bit while otherwise nearly cutting out all food.

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