Maintaining a healthy diet for weight loss can take a big chunk off your finances, yes – but not as much as fad diets.
In common logic, the shorter time you maintain a diet, the lesser the expense. However, in the real world, that’s not actually how it is.
Fad diets become the fad that they are because they promise quick weight loss. While that may be true for many of these weight loss diet plans – the benefits are often short-term.
Fad diets cause fast weight loss because they are crash diets that create the needed caloric deficit in your body to shed some pounds. The downside, however, is that these diets usually recommend unbalanced eating plans that are not nutritionally complete.
Because of this, the US market for diet control and weight loss skyrocketed to $66 billion in 2017. Unfortunately, the industry gain could imply significant financial loss for those who ride the fad diet train.
Here are 3 ways fad diets ruin your finances:
1. Fad diets may cause binge eating and other eating disorders
Fad diets usually involve cutting out important food groups in your regular meals – causing quick and drastic weight loss. However, the effects don’t last long because your body’s natural response is to crave for the nutrients you deprived yourself of.
Eventually, you give in to these cravings and spend on unhealthy food more often. You don’t just eat more bad food, you spend more on them, too.
Fad diets may cause long-term results like eating disorders, and medical complications – which will eventually rack up your expenses exponentially.
2. Fad diets promise quick results without scientific proof
Many fad diets require you to invest in supplements, expensive books, or pricey programs based on sketchy “research.” Spending thousands of dollars on something that doesn’t really work is a sure-fire way to diet your way to debt.
3. Fad diets trap you into diet delivery service and eating out
Fad diets usually require strict adherence to specific types of food and caloric count – which can be a pain in the butt to maintain every single day.
Most people then resort to ordering from diet delivery services or eat out at paleo-certified or 100% vegan restaurants – another way fad diets cause a huge dent in your finances.
Sure, you’re eating healthy and ticking all the checkmarks in your fad diet book but you’ll end up stressed and worried about how much you’re spending, and that will pretty much send you to the hospital anyway sooner or later.
So what do you do then?
Find a diet that is personalized to your body’s unique needs, something realistically sustainable, and a program that helps you lose weight at a healthy rate without going financially sick.
This list has been adapted from Pru Life UK’s article here.