4 ways dieting can make you fat

The word dieting gives us the jitters. We fear the torture that dieting entails: eating food items which we don't like or eating either nothing or too less for our daily survival.

In spite of going through this torture, there is very little guarantee that we will get the body we want. On the contrary, we end up gaining more weight once we are done with our dieting phase and go back to our usual eating pattern.

Here is my picture when I was on a diet as compared to the time that I was eating three times more:

So how can something, which doesn't guarantee results and makes us more unfit can be of any help to us? But we still want to go on a diet hoping to lose weight and get back in the shape we always wanted. Don't believe me, see my image above.

But before you go on a diet again, let me warn you that dieting can actually make you put on weight. Here is why:

Short-term arrangement

Dieting is and will always be a short-term arrangement! No matter how disciplined you get, you can’t follow a diet 365 days a year. There will be days, weeks and even months when you would want to cheat and you will. And this is where the problem starts! Once you start eating the food you like and go back to your regular routine, the weight will come right back. And this time the weight gain will be even more than that when you started dieting.

Also read: Splurging on sinful food is actually good for you

It makes you eat food, which you don't like

Dieting makes you eat the food items which you are not too fond of. And guess what, we pay the nutritionist to prescribe those food items and add to our diet plan. Think about it. For how long can you survive on food items which doesn't make you feel good? Eventually you will give up. So why to punish yourself in the first place?

It makes us eat food which is not easily available

This again has been a cause of concern for those who have been on a diet. Nutritionists usually recommend as part of the diet plan food stuffs which are only available in the remote corners of the city. From gluten-free food items to special atta (flour). After a few days, this becomes a challenge, which makes us want to give up and go back to our not-so-healthy, yet tasty food items.

Increases our fat storage

Dieting, believe it or not, increases our body's fat percentage! Even though we lose kilos from our body but that is water weight, which comes right back after a few weeks. Our body doesn't understand the difference between dieting and starvation, because both are technically doing the same - that is, not making you eat. Realising this, our body goes into the starvation mode conserving everything it has inside so that we could survive.

My advice to all of you: Stay away from dieting. If you really want to get fit just do something which is a long-term option which you can maintain for the rest of your life.

To get a detailed perspective on how dieting can make you put on weight, see my video blog below.