What Happens When Diets Stop Working?

Have you ever been on a diet only to find out that it stopped working? You know what I mean. You start on a diet whether it is latest fad diet or not. You follow it to the letter. It works for a couple of weeks and then, everything just stops working.

Why Do People Stop Diets?

What happens when you cut your intake of food? Your body starts to send signals to the brain that it is not getting all the extra food that it is used to getting. At first the signal is quiet, but as time passes, it gets really load. (That’s my unscientific take on this.) The point I am making is that reducing food intake causes your body to slow down.

At first you lose weight fairly quickly. But as the warning signal gets heard in the brain, it sends out commands to the body that its time to go into a starvation mode. This causes the body to slow down and become accustomed to the lower intake of food.

Your Body Is Like The Borg

Have you ever watched the TV series, Star Trek New Generation? On this show is a race called the Borg. The Borg are a rather scary group of aliens because their whole purpose in life was to assimilate the various races they encountered. When ever they were met with resistance, the Borg would quickly adapt to the attack and make it useless.

Your body does the same thing. That load signal that is sent to the brain at first is like the attacks on the Borg. It quickly adapts and makes the attack useless. Thus, your diet program seems to stop. When it stops, what do you think happens? Exactly. You stop the program thinking that this doesn’t work. Why should you try any longer.

Overcoming The Borg In You

To overcome this adaptation, you have to do the same thing. Adapt just as quickly. To break out of the shutdown, you should look at cycling your program and exercises. Rotate from a lower intake to a higher intake every few days or every other day. Change up your exercises every week or two.

Keep your body guessing as to what you will be doing. While it is in this state of confusion, it doesn’t have time to worry about whether or not you are in the “starvation” mode. It is not sure what mode you are in since nothing is constant. When this happens, your body keeps shrinking down to the size you want it to.

Always keep in mind that what ever you do decide on, please verify this with your health care professional as they are fully aware of your specific health needs.

Until Next Time…