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Asked by to Edward, Ian, Mathew, Naomi, sakshisharda on 19 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
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Ian Stephenson answered on 19 Jun 2014:
Like most of the questions on here it all comes down to energy.
Your body uses energy. It gets that energy from food. If you eat more energy than you use, your body stores the extra as fat. This is a good thing, unless you live in modern society where we have as much food as we need. In which case its easy to take in too much energy, and end up with too much fat.
If you use more energy than you take in (a diet) then the fat gets converted back to energy, and you loose weight.
However the body is smarter than that… If you’re not getting enough energy it finds ways to me more efficient, and get by on less energy, so when you diet you can train your body to get by on less food, so when you go back to eating the regular amount you put all the weight back on again.
As a result its really hard to loose weight, and keep it off by dieting – just eating a little less, doing a bit more exercise, and generally being healthy is far more effective in the long term.
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Mathew Piasecki answered on 19 Jun 2014:
There are many different kinds of diet, many promising great things without real scientific evidence. Essentially what matters is the balance between calories in and calories out, which come from the macronutrients protein, fat and carbohydrate. Each have different amounts of calories and are used for energy in different ways. We are particularly good at storing one of these macronutrients because it is a useful energy source, and we’ve evolved to be able to survive without food for several days. In fact we’re so good at storing it, it’s now a huge global health problem. Can you guess which one it is?
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Naomi Osborne answered on 20 Jun 2014:
When we eat, we store energy (carbohydrates and fat) in our cells. This can result in weight gain if we eat too much and/or don’t exercise to use up what we’ve stored.
Many diets work by reducing the amount of carbohydrates or fat we eat (‘calorie counting’) so we store less and use up what’s stored. Diets alone are not very successful as you need exercise as well to raise your metabolism.
There’s so many fad diets (such as the ‘liquid diet’ which just sounds awful!) and dangerous diet pills, but like Ian and Mathew have said, a healthy lifestyle is the best way to diet!
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