crash diets

Crash Diets – What You Need to Know

You may have an event coming up where you want to look your best but you have some excess pounds to lose so what do you do?  Do you try that crash diet that your friend has been raving about?

Can you lose 5 pounds in a week with a crash diet or is it all smokes and mirrors?

Let’s look at the real truth about crash diets and what you need to watch out for…

Crash Diets – The Metabolic Problem

There are so many of these crash diets out there that I can’t even keep track of!  Everything from all-fruit diets, to cookie diets and even cabbage soup diets or some that are not as extreme like the low GI diet.

Whatever the diet, if it is something that claims rapid weight loss like five or ten pounds a week then you need to have a serious reality check because this will wreak havoc with your metabolism.

If you all of a sudden start starving yourself of nutrients that your body has become accustomed to and go extreme in one direction then your body will simply not know how to metabolize food.

The consequences will be anything from muscle spasms, eye twitches, and energy crashes to bad breath or even unusual sweating and fainting.

These are all serious warning signs that your body is trying to get through to your head and you need to be aware of them otherwise you can suffer long-term consequences if you stick to the crash diet long enough.

Crash Diets – Short Term Results

What most people tell me about these crash diets is the fact that once they are off them the weight Is gained back in an extremely short time, so don’t count on this being the magic solution to getting yourself thin.

One of the main reasons for these short term results can be especially focused on you losing water weight especially if the crash diet involves any kind of “cleansing” strategy.  There is a huge warning here since dehydration can cause some serious dizziness and nausea which I know a lot of women have experienced to the nth degree!

You are way smarter if you instead you take a long term approach to eliminating junk foods one by one and switching to healthy fresh fruits, veggies, lean meats, beans and whole grain foods which will naturally allow you to lose weight and keep it off.

Crash Diets – The Solution

At the end of the day you want to live life to its fullest without compromising your health so instead of falling for these crash diets let’s look at some ways to help you quickly lose weight in a healthy way.

Now this will be a challenge, but no more than the challenge that you’d get from the restrictions present in any crash diet.

To make it easy breezy, I’m going to give it to you in bullet points:

  • Drink at least 8 cups of water a day to help you flush out all the chemicals and make sure that your brain isn’t confusing thirst with hunger
  • Aim for 5-7 small meals a day of which two can be protein smoothies (my faves are: Optimum 100% Natural Whey and Gaspari Nutrition Myofusion)
  • Add a 15 minute cardio activity in your morning which gets you to at least a light sweat.  It can be a bike, bike machine, jog, brisk walk, jumping rope, quick swim or a workout DVD like Insanity Workout or Brazil Butt Lift.
  • Aim for 4-5 resistance training workouts a week which are no longer than 60 minutes (check out the workouts and training section of the site for tons of workout ideas)
  • Include High Intensity Interval Training twice a week
  • If you feel like motivation is a problem for working out then invest in a pre-workout energy complex like SuperPump 250 or USPLabs Jack3d.
  • Have one day or two nights of cheat meals a week, which means you can eat your favorite foods but still keep your portions reasonable.  This will help you make this a sustainable plan, but if you are in a real time crunch you can keep this out.
  • You can try a thermogenic supplement to boost your metabolism like Irwin Naturals Green Tea Fat Metabolizer or USPlabs OxyELITE Pro, but just make sure to eliminate any other caffeine sources and cycle this off ever few weeks so your body doesn’t get used to it.
  • Since you will be training hard during this time I would highly recommend a muscle recovery supplement full of branch-chained-amino-acids like
  • Remember muscle weighs more than fat so don’t rely on a scale for your results.  Instead focus on how good you feel after your workout and I guarantee you will be a much happier person.

Have any questions or feedback about crash diets?  Please leave a comment below…