Having an appropriate weight to your height and age is crucial in helping you expand your longevity. However for many, looking “sexy” is what drives them and while this is a beautiful result of all the hard work, it should not be the sole purpose.
It should be realized that losing weight isn’t a Point A to Point B road; it’s is a lifelong journey and lifestyle you have to adapt forever – just cause you’ve reached your weight loss goal does not mean you can go back to making unhealthy habits again. Losing weight and getting to a healthy state is seriously like a spiritual process. It simply won’t happen overnight and you will be required to go beyond your comfort zone and make sacrifices to reach the goal.
With instant gratification imbedded into our blueprint, many opt into making dangerous choices to speed up the process. Not only do these don’t work, but they are detrimental to your body and your mind. Proper exercise, eating right, and getting the right amount of sleep and rest are the only things you need – anything else is simply unnecessary and/or simply a scam. Yes, there are ways you can speed up the process, but a lot of the “shortcuts” only work if you adapt a proper regiment into your lifestyle; we’ll explain further into the post.
However, here are things you simply want to stay away from.
Purging (Bulimia)
Throwing up the food you eat so you do not gain any weight from it a serious problem. The stomach is filled with hydrochloric acid and it is not something that should meet your esophagus or anything above it. The acid can tarnish your teeth and really ruin your upper digestive tract – and this is just the beginning of the long list of problems; Bulimia also impacts a person psychologically. Bulimia is no joke and you must take serious steps to get help for those you know who suffer from this condition; you are not alone and help can be attained. Here is a link for you to go.
The Balloon Pill
The idea is similar to various gastric weight-loss treatments; Obalon is the most prominent name associated with this method. Upon taking the pill, a micro-catheter is used to expand the balloon to the size of an apple – allowing you to feel full and thus eat lesser amounts. Residents in United States may not be so familiar with this concept as it has not yet been approved for commercial practice and is still under investigation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Honestly, we hope that FDA does not approve this as media would simply make it out to be the best thing out since sliced bread and many would immediately jump for it without even caring for the potential side effects.
Unless you are extremely overweight (meaning you need clinical help to lose weight) and can be monitored by a professional while using this as treatment, this idea should simply not be a go to plan. Eating vegetables/fruits and whole grains work great if you want to feel full and eat less (bad) foods.
Starvation
For many – dieting means eating less; this is both true and not. Obviously you will have to eat lesser in comparison (to what you normally eat) if your caloric intake is excruciatingly larger than what is required. However eating lesser should not mean not eating at all. Yes, it is true that you have to lose 3,500 calories to lose a pound of fat, but you should not rush into it by exercising yourself to death and starving. Not only will your body stop burning fat after a little while, but it will start eating away at whatever muscles you may have; plus the lack of nutrients will have a detrimental effects on your organs. Like Bulimia, Anorexia is also a severe problem and requires proper steps to tackle; learn more about it here.
The trick is to figure out your BMR and reduce your calories by about 300-500 from it, and include an exercise regimen where you also burn 300-500 calories. However you must eat adequately if you are exercising vigorously to ensure you get enough nutrients. Reducing your daily caloric intake by about 500 each day (cumulatively with limiting portions and exercising) will help you burn a pound of fat each week – it’s easy to do and you won’t hate your life.
You can eat a lot of food and still intake lesser calories – granted you make the right choices; it makes sense to eat 3 bowls of veggies and fruits vs. eating a burger to get the same amount of calories – not only will the veggies digest better in your body but will provide a lot more nutrition than a burger would.
Relying on cleanses/miracle drinks.
Here is a shortcut that we don’t mind as long as it is used appropriately. Is drinking lemon water with honey and cinnamon recommended – absolutely! While it will act as a catalyst in speeding up your goals, it is not going to reduce any fat off your body unless you eat right and exercise. Lemon, honey, cinnamon, and whatever natural ingredients you put in your body will never impact your health in a negative way (granted of course you are not allergic to them), but do not expect to see miracles by solely relying on them especially if you plan on continuing with unhealthy habits – if anything, it’ll give you an excuse to get some water in your system.
Using tight wraps and corsets
You may have seen a lot of celebrities wear tight corsets or skinny wraps and might have been convinced – some brands even advertise that you would lose up to an inch of your waist within a week. All these wraps do (depending on what kind of wrap it is) is either reduce immense amounts of water weight from your belly (which of course comes back once your water levels are back to normal) and/or just shift the fat around – giving the illusion of flatter belly (which also goes back to its place once you stop using them). Tightening your waist is simply not good for the wellbeing of your organs – especially if you do this for long periods of time.
You may however try out a neoprene belt while you work out just to increase the thermal heat around your waist – but make sure you don’t wrap it too tight and that you clean it after each use; wearing unclean belt is just insanely unsanitary. But don’t expect any results by simply wearing it all day around with no exercise and proper diet in place – use it to accelerate your workout results, not to substitute it for exercising.
Tapeworm Diet
Like the Balloon pill, tapeworm diet maybe one method you may not be aware of. To put it simply, you take a pill containing a tapeworm and become a host to it. The idea is that tapeworm will reduce your overall calorie intake by sharing the food you eat – so you get to eat all you want without having to make any sacrifices (which of course is not true because how much food is that tapeworm really going to eat?). Most people that find success using this method swear it to be the best method ever. However the dangers simply out-weigh the risks.
If the actual idea of it doesn’t freak you out, perhaps knowing the side effects will. Tapeworms are not obedient; this means that there is no guarantee that they will stay in the stomach. They can very easily escape out of it and go as far as your brain causing harm. Abdominal pain, weakness, headache, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, and bloating are other known side-effects.
No health practitioner in their right mind would ever recommend this plan so don’t go for it just because you see people support on the internet. Once again; a nutritional diet, good exercise, and proper rest is all you need!
Tongue Patch
Lastly, the Tongue Patch diet is the one you should never have to consider. The idea behind this concept is to place a patch on your tongue that makes it painful for the person to swallow solid foods. It is a short term program where you simply rely on liquid foods – i.e. protein shakes and smoothies – and are supposed to limit the caloric intake to about 800. People are known to lose up 20 lbs. within a month from this program but like any short term weight loss programs – the weight just comes right back once you go back to your old ways.
While “no pain, no gain” is a fitting motto when it comes to weight loss, this is not the way you want to go about it. Check out the video below explaining everything you need to know on the Tongue Patch and decide which side of the coin you would like to be on yourself.
What other diets have you come across that are fitting on this list? Let us know with a comment below!
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