Dietitians and Experts Explain Why Diets Don't Work
Why Should You Stop Dieting? Because Diets Don't Work — Experts Explain 7 Reasons Why
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If a person isn't consuming adequate calories or they're cutting out certain food groups, they may be missing out on essential vitamins, minerals, and nutrients their body needs to function normally. Cadillac said this can cause a weakened immune system, loss of muscle, cardiovascular issues such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease or stroke, metabolic syndrome, and increased mortality risk. Yo-yo dieting in women, where you cycle between losing and gaining weight, can also increase heart disease risk.
Some will argue that being at a higher weight is unhealthy, but O'Malley said that research shows those at higher weights can have similar or better health markers than those at lower weights. This type of research is what helps us untangle the assumption that our weight equals our health, which is often the basis for the push to lose weight. O'Malley said, "Recognising this research and having more of us know this helps us to be more critical of diet culture messages around the need to lose weight to be healthy, because we know that's not always the case. And combined with weight cycling research, we can see that even the pursuit of weight loss over time with different diets can actually result in worsened mental and physical health markers."