- Serious and intentional limitation of the amount of energy ingested by food (calorie intake). For example, it could be following a well-known diet or simply counting calories and setting strict limits.
- Limiting food diversity and eating the same kind:
- low carb diet: protein diet, Atkins diet;
- low fat diet;
- diet with juices.
- Irregular meals:
- hourly diet;
- diet 5: 2 (five days a week we eat normally and two days a week - we are significantly limited in food);
- skipping meals;
- "Fasting days", ie. refusing to eat on certain days.
Who is on a diet?
Diets are common and popular. It is believed that about half of women of normal weight have tried a child. One study found that nearly 70% of 15-year-old girls are on a diet, and 8% of them follow an extremely strict diet. Another study found that approximately 70% of women and 45% of people on a diet are not overweight and do not have to follow any diet.
Diet is preceded by dissatisfaction with your body and a desire to lose weight.
A study from the UK showed that two thirds of girls aged 14-15 and half of girls aged 12-13 want to lose a few pounds. Because of the stress associated with this, about a quarter of young girls skipped at least one meal a day.
Dietary risks
Diets increase the risk of eating disorders. Scientists have found that if girls in adolescence eat a moderate diet, the risk of developing an eating disorder increases fivefold, and with a strict diet eighteenfold.
Frequent, strict diets contribute to being overweight. 95% of those who follow a diet to lose weight gain more in the next two years than they lost as a result of the diet. This is due to the fact that during the diet people severely limit the number of calories and a variety of meals, feeling constant hunger. Maybe a short diet can ignore hunger, but after long diets there is an increased appetite and overeating. This in turn leads to feelings of guilt and failure, which can exacerbate dissatisfaction with yourself and your body. Some people live a similar cycle of diets all their lives - that is, dieting takes up a certain amount of time and energy on a daily basis.
In addition, it has been found that diets slow down the metabolism - the rate of calorie burning slows down.
Normal metabolic rate is restored for some time after a person returns to a healthy and adequate diet.
A strict diet affects both mental and physical health. Bad breath, fatigue, overeating, headaches and cramps, constipation, sleep disturbances and possible bone destruction may occur.
A child can change the body's natural reactions to food, needs and appetite. A person stops feeling hunger and satiety, may stop distinguishing their emotional needs from hunger.
Why are we going on a diet?
Many people of normal body weight consider themselves overweight and want to lose weight through diet. Also, many overweight people want to lose extra pounds and believe that diet will help them with that.
It is known that about ⅓ the world's population is overweight, but about twice as many people want to lose weight.
They are on a diet out of a desire to be slimmer. The world’s pursuit of slimness has many reasons, one of which is the equally common fear of gaining weight. It has been discovered that such fear can already appear in primary school students. For some reason, in our society, completeness is considered shameful and condemnable.
Through advertising the desire for a diet people support companies focused on everything related to the diet (diet, books, groceries and other goods). Being in a highly lucrative industry, the food industry is unnaturally optimistic about diet. In fact, it has been found that half of people on a diet gain weight because of it - a small number of them are able to maintain their lost weight as a result of dieting for five years.
The success of a strict diet depends on many physical and mental factors, and in obesity it is very ineffective for weight loss.