Diet crazes and trends can range from incredibly helpful and insightful to downright dangerous. Take the military diet, for example, which is a version of the low-calorie diet that throws nutrition right out of the window. It is dangerous to eat processed, unhealthy foods and then starve yourself. It is also incredibly difficult to do, as one of the main reasons processed, unhealthy foods are so popular is because they are downright addictive.
There is a lot of benefits that can come from a proper low-calorie diet or even intermittent fasting, but first, you need to know all the facts:
What is the Low-Calorie Diet?
A low-calorie diet is exactly what it sounds like. It is a diet that works on the basis that to lose weight you need to ingest fewer calories than you burn. It goes further than most diets, however, and encourages those who go on it to consume at least half of what the average recommendation is for their gender and lifestyle.
You can also go on a low-calorie intermittent fasting diet, which similarly encourages periods (usually two days) where you consume ¼ of your recommended daily intake of calories to lose weight.
How Does the Low-Calorie Diet Work?
The low-calorie diet works in a few ways. If you opt for intermittent fasting, it helps by forcing your cells to go into autophagy, which helps cell health in the long term. If you opt for a regular low-calorie diet, your body will very likely go into a state of ketosis, where it burns fat instead of carbohydrates in order to survive. Ketosis has a wide variety of health benefits that can help you reach your weight goal and even improve your overall health outlook. Before you try a low-calorie diet, do your own research and speak to your doctor if you have any questions.
What Are the Health Benefits of the Low-Calorie Diet?
There are many diet option for you to choose from, meaning you need to research and decide which one is right for you and your needs. For instance, two common low-calorie diet plans are the Cambridge Diet and the Shake That Weight diet plans. Both of them offer low-calorie weight loss programmes, however, unlike the Cambridge Diet, Shake That Weight offers a selection of lower-calorie meal shakes and plans at around 150 calories per meal.
What Are the Health Benefits of the Low-Calorie Diet?
Causes Your Cells to Go into Autophagy
Autophagy is the state that cells go into when you fast. It forces the cells to rid themselves of any waste they have been keeping for long periods of time, and can even help force them into cell regeneration mode. This means that not only can you lose weight due to the lower calorie count, but your body can also become healthier overall as well.
Reduces Common Health Stressors
Low-calorie diets often result in a reduction of many health stressors, including:
- Insulin Production
- Cholesterol Levels
- Inflammation
- Oxidative Stress
The reduction of these health stressors can help reduce your risk of Type 2 Diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular diseases.
Help Slow Down the Aging Process
It is believed that a low-calorie diet can help slow down the aging process while increasing longevity. Therefore, if you want to live longer, then resist your hunger and eat less. How does this happen, though? Well, a low-calorie diet means slowing down a person’s metabolic rate and reducing free radicals – this is linked to a few chronic illnesses. If you are already lean and considered a healthy weight, you can still benefit from a low-calorie diet, as it is a way for your body to detox itself.
Whatever diet you choose, however, it is incredibly important you consider how you can improve your lifestyle to support your goal weight at the end of the diet.
If you need, try taking cooking classes or exercise classes to give you the tools and incentive you need to succeed after your meal plan has ended. Meal plans, after all, can be so incredibly helpful while you are losing weight, but you don’t necessarily want to be married to them for the rest of your life.
By creating the right healthy habits while you are losing weight, you can implement a healthy lifestyle right from the moment you stop your meal plan and start living your best life. Do it by yourself, do it with others – whatever your strategy, start today.