When it comes to losing weight, people sometimes go to the extreme to reach their weight loss goals. Whether they are trying to drop 10 pounds in a week for a vacation or trying to lose weight to fit into their wedding dress; people have gone beyond the traditional healthy diet and regular exercise. It is almost unbelievable what many have done, so unbelievable that they need to be shared.
Whether it is using water pills or suffocating yourself with a waist trainer, there have been some extreme attempts at getting the perfect body. These are bound to have you questioning the validity of these diets.
The Cabbage Soup Diet
We’ve all heard of the cabbage soup diet. The cabbage soup diet has been around for ages and dates back to World War II. The cabbage diet was supposed to be a preventative measure against scurvy. Even to this day, it is still extremely popular. You are bound to lose weight on this diet due to the decrease in calories. According to most health sites, a woman should eat about 1500 calories a day, and a man should eat about 2000.
On this diet, you are going to be eating anywhere between 800-1000 calories which put you in a severe deficit. This is not only unhealthy; it becomes even more dangerous if you decide to exercise while on this diet. Your body will become extremely weak and fragile and the likelihood of you lacking proper nutrition will increase. A lot of people have passed out on this diet so I would call that pretty darn extreme.
Water Pill Diet
This diet is one that can lead to a handful of health issues including dehydration and fever. You have probably seen lots of websites claiming that water pills are a quick slim down solution, but do they really work? Water pills are medically known as a diuretic. Diuretics contain ingredients that force your kidneys to rid itself of extra water and salt. This, of course, is released when you go to the bathroom. These are usually prescribed to people who have trouble releasing water, and because of that, they become extremely bloated. It is not rare for people who have hypertension or heart failure to be prescribed these pills to reduce blood pressure.
These pills have become really popular amongst pageant girls who take them hours before they hit the stage in swimsuit competition to assure there would be no extra bloat while on stage. The problem with these pills is that most people get them over the counter and those are the ones that are not regulated. Drugs that are not regulated means you will be running the risk of overdosing which can cause a slew of health problems including dizziness and even UTI’s in women.
Waist Training
We can thank celebrities like Amber Rose and Kim Kardashian for introducing the waist trainer as a method to reach your body goals. However, waist training or corseting has been around since the 16th century in which they referred to it as “pair of bodies.” In the 1790s doctors started warning women about the dangers of “tight lacing” as women used to tight lace their children, while their skeletons were still soft, to make them have a fashionable shape.
Around 2011-2012 we started seeing celebrities expose their Hollywood secrets of waist training to lose belly fat and gain the perfectly shaped waist, and while these celebrities swear by this method, there has been no medical proof that this method actually works; just doing something, with no medical benefit is dangerous within itself. Even though there has been no medical proof these actually work, there has been some medical proof that waist trainers can move your organs and cram them all together which results in displaced organs and even crushed ribs. The moral of the story is, just because celebrities promote it, does not make it safe.