When discussing the benefits of any diet, its very important to look at more than the short term benefits and most discussions neglect to do this. Nutritional plans should not be rated simply by how much fat they can lose and how quickly. Additional very important factors to look at:
1) Short term side effects. Many diets have rather unpleasant side effects. For example, no-carb diets can cause severe constipation because of the lack of fiber. This can be more than an inconvienience, it can cause some long lasting digestive problems. What are the short term problems that occur while on the diet? Some of the drastic diets out there are downright dangerous!
2) Is there a bounce-back effect? Is this a nutritional plan you can stay on forever or is it a short term diet? If its a short term diet, what happens to the average person a month and a year after quitting? Do they gain all their fat back?
3) What about muscle mass? Is it possible to gain muscle while on this nutritional plan/diet? Can you at least maintain muscle mass? How much muscle mass is lost? Muscle mass is precious, do you really want to lose it? Most diets that severely restrict calories cause muscle loss.
4) Is there psychological damage done? Deprivation and food-guilt can lead to a lifetime of eating disorders. A short term gain is in no way worth a lifetime of eating disorders. This is a very important question and its one that my nutritional plans have been criticized for which is funny considering how mild my recommendations are compared to many of the diets out there. Anyway, its why you may have noticed that I personally have ‘lightened up’ a bit when it comes to my nutritional recommendations.
Read about the ways you can eat less.