Many women resort to crash diets to get them bikini-ready for summer or to help fit themselves into their wedding dress before the big day.
The principle is simple – they try to accommodate in two or so weeks what should be a weight plan normally designed for 6 months or more.
Crash diets entail radical reductions in caloric intake.
They range from soup diets to cleansing diets, but a common factor among them is the deprivation of nutrients needed by the body for proper metabolism and production of energy.
They last from several days to a few weeks, and there is almost always a radical reduction in weight, but crash diets are not in all aspects successful.
The Body Mechanisms Affected By Crash Diets:
Dieting is not as easy as reducing fat intake and losing pounds.
We need to look into the mechanisms in the body affected by these diets to understand what we should watch out for.
First, if you want to fit into that bikini or wedding dress in two weeks’ time, then you just might be able to do so because crash dieting is a few steps away from starvation – and we know how hunger strikers look like after a few weeks.
But the question is… is it healthy for you?
Since our body uses various sources of fuel to convert to energy, the fuel used by a 200-meter-dash athlete is different from that used by a basketball player at the second half of a game.
Studies have shown that lean tissue and muscle are the first to be broken down than stored body fat.
Thus, when people subscribe to crash diets, it’s the muscle that breaks down first before the body fat which they are actually targeting.
During extreme diets, your body will think it’s starving when you’re losing too much weight too fast, and responds by conserving fat.
The same thing happens when a person cuts down on caloric intake but does not exercise at the same time – your body will tend to whittle muscle tissue, not fat.
How Is Muscle Tissue Different From Fat Tissue?
Besides their appearance, muscle tissue is metabolically active – that is, you have to work on them to keep them healthy.
Notice how some patients recuperating from accidents lose muscle mass but gain weight?
It’s because if they can’t benefit from therapy that helps them exercise their muscles, the muscles can atrophy. However, the fat cells will stick to them like glue.
The Basal Metabolic Rate:
In order to maintain your metabolism’s health, muscle tissue is extremely important to help your body 
function properly in all aspects.
If there is a reduction in muscle mass, there is also a drop in metabolic rate.
Muscle that is metabolically active has to be fed well, and this is why bodybuilders have diets that can compete with those of sumo wrestlers.
How does the body respond to crash diets?
When it senses that it has been deprived of the nutrients it needs for an extended period, it makes up for the lack by lowering the basal metabolic rate, or BMR. This is the number of calories burned in a day by an at-rest body so it can maintain normal body functions.
If it decreases, it means that calories are burned more slowly by your body.
Its implication in crash diets is once you get off a crash diet and revert to your normal food routine, it will become easier for your body to deposit fat. This is what happens in the so-called “yo-yo dieting,” when someone’s weight see-saws between diets.
How, Then, Should You Keep Muscle?
Researchers recommend a target of not more than one pound a week. It may not be much, but that’s 20 pounds in 5 months, and your body will thank you for the less drastic change.
M. Jamal
P.S. Been on a Crash Diet before? How did it feel… and… was it worth it?
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I lost 20lbs in 2 weeks. this weekend I had custard (made with heavy cream). She is AWESOME. In 2 more weeks I’ll be under 300lbs. I love you, Suzanne.