What is the Crash Diet?
The Crash Diet or Crash Diet is a drastic system of body weight loss. In reality, it is a true controlled fast, aimed at reducing adipose tissue in the shortest possible time. In crash diets, the energy intake is equal to or less than 30% of the normocaloric one.
In addition to the rapid weight loss, the other unique feature of the crash diet is the very low application time. In fact, the crash diet is designed to last a maximum of one week; on the other hand, it is also necessary to specify that there are (alas) different variants of crash diet.
In practice, people who do not want, time or money to manage a weight loss diet, face weekly crash diet microcycles trying to dispose of 2-8gk in a short time. The motivation, in general, is not a health one but a purely aesthetic one.
Does the Crash Diet Work?
It depends on the objective set; if you want to "dispose" a small amount of body fat in a very short time (like some athletes, but at the expense of performance), theoretically it should work. However, if the desired weight loss is significant, the crash diet becomes almost totally ineffective, as it is NOT sustainable.
Undesirable effects of the Crash Diet
Malnutrition, hunger, stress and dehydration are side effects that arise easily even in the most generous crash diets. Those who take alcohol during a crash diet, risk worsening vitamin deficiency, dehydration and hypoglycemia.
Furthermore, most people who face a crash diet face the so-called "yo-yo effect" of weight, which is a continuous fluctuation due to the recovery and loss of water and body fat between diet and compensation periods. .
With the drastic limitation of caloric intake, after 1 or 2 days, the body tends to lower the metabolism negating (albeit partially) the attempt to lose weight.
Moreover, in most cases, the pounds lost with the crash diet consist mainly of body fluids and only to a lesser extent of adipose tissue.
In case you want to associate sports activity with the crash diet, you need to keep in mind the risk of muscle tissue depletion.
It is also necessary to specify that attempts at dieting (especially drastic) put a strain on even the psychological and emotional sphere of those who practice them (probably already suffering); not least, people's self-esteem is compromised after each restoration of the original weight (typical effect of the crash diet).
In conclusion, the crash diet represents the stereotype of unhealthy eating habits adopted by subjects potentially affected (or at risk) with eating disorders.
