14 DAY TRIAL // Summer is officially here and, as usual, that simple fact of life brings about a veritable revolution as far as dieting is concerned. It's quite easy to understand why this happens - given that hot weather doesn't only mean lighter day clothes, skirts that show more leg, sleeveless blouses and the likes, but also having to face the prospect of donning a bikini. Lucky for us, this year retro one-piece bathing suits are back with a vengeance, but still, the problem remains - our tummy is no longer flat and we may have to take the heroic decision of embarking on a diet. However, we have to keep one essential thing in mind: near-starvation is not the way to stay fit.
So, an apple a day, one small bowl of cereal and... well, a couple more apples if you really feel like you're about to faint. This is what most crash-diets look like and all of us who tried them at least once in our lives know they're not pretty. The problem, as we very well know, is not necessarily losing the actual weight, but rather keeping the pounds off once we officially return to "normal" eating - since we can't eat only apples every day for the rest of our lives. Our bodies won't suffer from the dramatic cut in calories a crash diet involves, but the downside to all that is that they will have no problem bouncing back and piling on the pounds again - very quickly.
"While it is true that when we diet our metabolic rate [the rate at which we burn energy] goes down, it simply drops to a level which is appropriate to our new weight. If you were to put the lost weight back on again, it would bounce back up... human metabolism is designed to yo-yo", explains Andrew Prentice, Professor of International Nutrition at the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and an expert on obesity. In his opinion, some "starvation rations" are better for us and some are pure evil. The idea is to provide our bodies with all the vitamins, minerals and protein we need while we diet, even if we're talking about a crash diet - and don't forget to stick to consistent eating patterns during the diet as such. Monitor your weight constantly and find reasons to smile throughout the day.