“Drop Ten Pounds in a Day!” “How to Get the Perfect Beach Body!” With all of these great advertisements and slogans, dieting seems like a great way to lose weight and be healthier. Not to mention the influencers on YouTube and Instagram promoting a beneficial lifestyle using rigorous diet plans that will bring “life-changing” results. This really drills into teens’ minds that they should be dieting too. This article will explain some of the faults that come with a strict diet plan and how it can be more harmful than helpful.

It Doesn’t Work!
Many people think dieting is simply a harmless and effective method used to lose weight. In reality, dieting can slow the body’s metabolism which is the rate your body burns calories. This means that in the long run, dieting can actually increase your weight, as it becomes harder to lose calories that you’ve eaten. In addition, this harmful practice can cause food cravings as well as an increased appetite. Again, this can have the opposite effects as you tend to overeat after being starved.

Physical Effects
Not only can dieting cause you to gain weight, there are other physical symptoms such as diarrhea, headaches, fatigue, and reduce muscle tissue and bone density. These all obviously negatively affect your well-being and can lead to serious health problems.

Mental Effects
Most of the motivation for dieting comes from overwhelming social standards for the “perfect image”. All this stress and anxiety over your appearance can lead to severe deterioration of your mental health. It’s been proven that dieting is the number one risk factor in the development of an eating disorder. With diseases such as anorexia or bulimia, everyone, men and women alike, should strive to be comfortable in their own bodies.

Diets Measure Health in Weight
Usually, diets are more focused on your weight rather than how healthy you actually are. In reality, people carry their weight differently and being heavier doesn’t necessarily mean they are unhealthy. All in all, simply make sure to keep track of what you eat, and not necessarily how much you eat.

Pills and Cleanses
Many people hear of diets and think of various insane-sounding miracle pills that are sure to bring you to a size zero. All these fads soon becomes believable and more wide-spread. In actuality, these pills can damage your health and have many hidden side effects. With companies earning $33 billion each year on weight loss products, what’s to stop them?

In conclusion, be comfortable in your own body, and make sure to focus on your health over how much you weigh. It may sound cheesy, but, if you love yourself, others will too!