Can I lose weight eating junks only?
Many wonders, I used to be among them, if losing weight and gaining weight is about the amount of calories we consume, if I can maintain or achieve my target weight eating whatever I want …why then dietitians don’t always follow such approach? EASY… It is not worth the risk… and I think that it is incomparable (healthy vs unhealthy weight loss), but let me explain first…
If we think about it, it is quite logical that if we are balancing our input (food we are taking) with our output (burning of calories ex: Physical activity), we will be then in a good shape…
INPUT= OUTPUT = BALANCE
INPUT > OUTPUT = GAIN
INPUT < OUTPUT = LOSS
This approach is often called CICO diet. It stands for Calories In, Calories Out. I believe most nutritionists, if not all, are against this approach. What really affects health is food choices, not only the calories, and I think I shared this before (what matters is the quality not the quantity).“We now know that the quality of the calories you consume—as well as the macronutrient balance and timing—all impact metabolism, satiety, and how your body utilizes calories.” Said by nutrition expert, Cynthis Sass, MPH, RD and Health’s contributing nutrition editor.
Healthy VS Unhealthy:
Even though I hate defining and labelling food as healthy/ unhealthy. To be honest, it is one of the nutrition principles, as you have to avoid labelling food as good/ bad or healthy/ unhealthy. You just need to keep in mind some key factors that I already shared in Healthful diet post…
Anyhow, we can’t ignore the fact that unhealthy weight loss is not true neither promising all the time, if we compared (healthy vs unhealthy). And obviously I will never recommend such approach. Because What we want to achieve is HEALTH.
Our use of packaged items is increasing. We rely a lot on trans fats and we can’t let the week pass without ordering from outside, certainly junk food. And believe me, this is not what you want to build you body. Therefore, I think it is important to remember that “Whatever been through many processes are never good for our health”. Examples are bread, sugar, flour, oils (especially the hydrogenated ones), milk. Furthermore, whatever comes from natural origin does not make natural. Find what is truly natural, did not go through a lot of steps until it reaches to your plate. I’ve read that from “Never be sick again” Book. Again, I think I said that almost in every post, but elimination isn’t what I aim for. However, trying to include as much natural and clean food as I can in my daily basis will never be pointless.
I totally understand why people see healthy food or diet as a challenge. because they think it is not appetizing …
But if our plates look like this,
I think you should change your mind 😉 …..
What is on the picture is a lot for one, but if you share it with friends and family, take small portion from everything, make your plate colorful and vary… you will have an appetizing, joyful, full meal.
Impact of CICO diet
Even though it is true that you can lose weight, eating junks and sticking to your calorie requirements. Or you might starve and not eat anything. Both approaches can do more bad than good. Because in reality you will lose your muscles and water instead of fats. Fats takes time to get burned. Then you might notice loose skin. And Of course, it isn’t what you plan to have or how you want to look like. These approaches will make you tired since you are not taking enough micronutrients (vitamin and minerals). Then certainly, will have deleterious effects on health.
- Weakens immunity
- Brittle hair and nail
- Fatigue
- Joints pain
Much more if this last for long. Starvation especially will slow down your metabolism. What I mean by metabolism is an involuntary process that burns calories we consume to have energy. Therefore, keeping us alive… So starving ourselves will slow down this process. Our body during starvation will think that we are deprived from food and try to save as much as it can. You are not going to lose fats… you are actually favor saving it… and you will feel sleepy, tired most of the time just to save the stores…. Wait for detailed post about this 😉
Moreover, a consequence of CICO diet is dehydration…. The first thing that you are going to lose whenever you lose weight caring about calories the quality of your food choices is WATER… You might feel excited at first when you see that you are losing weight so fast, thinking what you are doing is right…. However, you will be experiencing headache along, constipation, irritability and more… Because you are losing water not fats.
Another interesting point, you might start feeling ravenous. You feel that you don’t have control when you see food. That’s because your leptin level is lowered. Leptin is a hormone that controls satiety and hunger. It helps in suppressing food intake. When it is lowered, you will feel hungrier, you will have food obsession, you will lose control…. You might not lose weight…
Well, I agree that with poor diet you will lose weight. However, there are more that goes within your body besides weight loss. A poor diet may leave you with fewer kilos on your body and will ruin other body systems such as your mood, your skin, and your gastrointestinal functions. Which will make you be more predisposed to cardiovascular diseases, mental disorders, and other chronic diseases.
This way of weight loss is not really worth the risks
References:
https://bmtdermandfamily.com/blog/healthy-unhealthy-weight-loss
https://nypost.com/2017/11/12/dont-try-this-junk-food-friendly-diet-nutritionists-warn/ https://www.livestrong.com/article/13725317-cico-diet-weight-loss/