Anybody make his or her problem worse through crash dieting?

martintanz
martintanz Posts: 280
in Health and Weight Loss
I know people who had, maybe a slight weight problem who made their problem worse due to crash or borderline starvation diets.

I have always struggled with weight issues and tried to lose weight many times. I wonder if my early efforts contributed to later weight gains.

I saw it happen to one of my brothers. He didn't really have a weight problem until he did Atkins to quickly take off a few lbs. Once he returned to eating normally, he wound up with an actual weight problem, like 40 or 50 extra lbs beyond where he was when he started Atkins. I know of another friend who went on a crash diet eating mostly raw spinach and canned tuna. Lost a bunch of weight in, maybe 2 or 3 months, but put it all back just as quickly when he returned to normal eating.

I never went on a crash diet, but I did lost a lot of weight in a short time twice when I was younger. Once when I was 15 losing 25 lbs in 8 weeks, and again when I was 21 losing 50 lbs in about 4 or 5 months. I may have gone too far, as in each case I put the weight back on eventually and then some.

Replies

  • lilpoindexter
    lilpoindexter Posts: 1,122 Member
    I never did...if you are on a "diet" that automatically means that once you are off the "diet", that you have to go back to the way you were.
  • Katie22222
    Katie22222 Posts: 31 Member
    I once did a 750 calorie/day diet for about 1/2 year. Afterwards I did gain back about 10 lbs, but I was pretty much able to maintain my weight then. I don't think you damage your body bad enough on your average crash diet so that you gain back 50+lbs or stay this way for life. It all depends on if you've learned to eat healthier. I'm not saying that this was healthy though, it was more out of desperation.

    If you go back to your old eating habits afterwards, you'll gain back the weight no matter how healthy or slow you lost it.
    And then they can't be 'normal' eating habits either, because you don't become overweight by eating normally and healthily.

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