Top three concerns for a lot of people, especially women have right now is weight gain and how it affects overall wellbeing and health. As the lockdown measures are gradually easing up, you are probably thinking of the best way to lose the extra kgs you added during the 6 weeks lockdown. While you seek a solution, below are a list of seven methods you should not try:
First on the list is starvation
This is the first thing that crosses the mind is no food, no calories right? Well, that can be counterproductive as the body goes into full survival mode. It stores all the fat it can get and shuts down to conserve energy. It might look like you’ve lost a bit of weight, but you definitely can’t sustain that for long and the health risks are in numbers too. Therefore, rule 101 to losing weight is EATING, by eating I mean eating healthy.
Slimming pills
You probably want to get a doctor’s prescription before using those. Side effects of this pill range from High blood pressure, diarrhoea, sleeplessness, kidney problems, and liver damage…. Not to scare you but ingredients used in some of these pills do not have FDA approval. Coupled with underlying health issues, the pills can cause major health damage. If you most use these, please get a doctor’s prescription.
Tapeworm Diet
This one here is gross and not popular in this region, however, desperation can cause anything. This involves ingesting tapeworms that, in turn, digest 50% of the food you consume and you get a visible result in days while eating whatever you like. Now, the process of ingesting the tapeworm is what is creeping me out. You have to eat up rotten meat or even faeces that is infected with tapeworms. I should probably stop here; I trust Nigerians not to try this.
However, there are people who would go any length to lose weight, and obvious risk include infections and God knows what else. On a lighter note, there might be a less creepy way of ingesting the tapeworm, but you won’t read that in this article. It defeats the purpose. Bye.
Slimming tea
I will tell you this one for free. Most of these slimming teas are a sham. You pay N10,000 for a slimming tea because a popular celeb is the brand ambassador and the customer care rep instructed you not to eat before noon and after 6 pm while using the tea and you think it’s working? The cause of your weight loss here is the intermittent fasting, not the tea. Next time you think of buying slimming teas, you probably buy almonds to munch on while on your intermittent fasting.
Purging or induced vomiting
Do I need to expatiate on this? You’ll only lose water weight with this and after a day you’re back to your round, surplus plummy self. Let’s be serious, losing water weight is not worth all that purging and vomiting.
Fruit or juice fast
This diet method has proving to be very effective and you see the visible result within 10 days; however, it might not be the safest as the body might not get all the nutrient and calories it needs. This diet method needs to be properly researched to know what fruits to eat and what quantity and duration. It can be counter-productive if the body gives an impression of false weight loss.
Keto
There’s a debate on the health implications of a ketogenic diet. Even with its popularity, eating all that fat and no carb will definitely have its effects. My advice? See a nutritionist to know what is best for you.
The secret to weight loss is simple, a little dose of exercise, portion control, adequate rest, enough fluid and mindful eating.
