Learn the benefits and risks of getting on a crash diet and know how to do it safely.
Medically reviewed by Merlin Annie Raj, RD (Registered Dietitian)
Written by Charushila, MSc (Biotechnology), ISSA Certified Fitness Nutritionist
Edited by Ravi Teja Tadimalla, BSc, Professional Certificate in Food, Nutrition and Health
Fact-checked by Payal Karnik, MSc (Biotechnology), Certified Health & Nutrition Life Coach
Crash dieting is one of the fastest ways to lose weight. It restricts caloric intake and is beneficial for short-term weight loss. Jesse Feder, a clinical dietitian at Southern Memorial Regional Hospital, said: “The 7-day crash diet is when someone drastically changes their eating habits by significantly reducing their caloric intake. For example, if you normally eat 2,000 calories a day, a crash diet might get you to 1,000-1,200 calories a day.”
But long-term use of very low-calorie diets can lead to eating disorders, compromised immunity, hair loss and irregular periods.
However, there is a way to diet safely for an upcoming event. See the 7-day Crash Diet plan, safety, and risks. Keep reading!
Overview: Crash Diet
- How it works: A low-calorie diet results in significant weight loss after just a few days.
- Purpose: To help lose weight quickly.
- Suitable for people: people who need to lose weight quickly due to medical surgery.
Duration: Short term - People who should be avoided: people with nutritional deficiencies, eating disorders (with a history), or physically active lifestyles, and those who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
- Disadvantages : May weaken the immune system, lower metabolism, disrupt digestive function, damage skin and hair health, and cause dehydration and weakness
What Is a Crash Siet?
Crash dieting is a dieting method to lose weight in a shorter period of time. This is a restrictive or extremely low-calorie diet that focuses on rapid weight loss.
Crash dieting doesn’t mean long-term weight loss. The effects of crash dieting are short-lived, and if you don’t eat healthy and exercise, you’ll gain the weight back quickly. However, in the coming moments, you can try a crash diet. Here is a list of popular crash diet types.
Tip:
While crash diets often focus on low-calorie foods, it’s important to watch your portion sizes to make them effective.
Crash Diet Type
Master Cleanse
Quick weight loss diets like Master Cleanse can help you lose 10 pounds in a week. It consists of lemon juice rich in vitamin C, two to three teaspoons of maple syrup and a dash of cayenne pepper.
Disadvantages – A quick weight loss diet like this may not last more than two days.
Juice Cleanse Your Diet
Juicing is a great way to go on a liquid diet without compromising nutrition. Drink fruit juices rich in dietary fiber and vitamin C to flush out toxins and rejuvenate your body. It’s also good for the skin.
Disadvantages – It may not last more than two days.
Cabbage Soup Weight Loss Method
Cabbage soup diet is a nutritious soup diet made of cabbage and other vegetables as the main material. Just drink this soup can quickly lose weight, slim down.
Cons – Eating only this soup for more than a day may get boring.
Grapefruit Diet
The grapefruit diet consists of eating half a grapefruit with each meal along with other healthy foods. It may help to lose weight quickly without compromising health (5).
Disadvantages – Eating grapefruit with every meal can lead to nutrient deficiencies and tooth enamel erosion, and eating only one fruit can be very challenging (6).
The Hollywood Diet
The Hollywood Diet, favoured by Hollywood stars, claims to lose 10kg in just 48 hours. All you have to do is drink an herbal concoction called the Hollywood Diet, which is sold in supermarkets and online.
Disadvantages – Not approved by a doctor. Your body may react to the herbs in the mixture, and just drinking the mixture can make you irritable and damage your immunity.
Chicken Soup Diet
This diet requires you to drink chicken soup for 7 days. You can add vegetables of your choice to enrich the soup with vitamins and minerals. You can also drink fresh juice as a snack.
Disadvantages – It is not suitable for vegetarians and vegetarians.
A 500-calorie diet
This is a very low-calorie diet that will reduce your daily caloric intake to 500 calories. It claims rapid weight loss and recommends using meal replacement foods, such as shakes and food bars, at least twice a day.
Disadvantages – It is not approved by a doctor and is not sustainable.
The hCG diet
This is a very low calorie and low fat diet plan that promises rapid weight loss of 0.5-1 kg per day. It is divided into three stages, two of which require you to supplement with hCG (mainly used to treat fertility problems). The weight loss phase of the diet was allowed to consume only 500 calories per day for three to six weeks.
Disadvantages – It’s very unsustainable, and hCG supplements are not FDA-approved.
Obviously, crash diets are nutrient-poor diets, but they help to lose weight quickly in a short amount of time. If you want to try it, do it for three or seven days. Here’s a simple 7-day crash eating plan.
7 Day Fast Weight Loss plan
How much weight will you lose after being on a crash diet for three to seven days? Find out below.
How Much Weight Will You Lose?
You can lose up to 10 pounds (4.5 kg) in 7 days. You may lose water for the first three days, and your body may shift into fat-burning mode for the next four days.
“Crash dieting usually burns fat, but you can also lose lean muscle tissue due to the drastic changes you’re making,” says Jesse Feder.
Does crash dieting Work? That’s what RDN Chrissy Arsenault said:
Chrissy Arsenault, from the RDN, said: “Crash diets often involve extremely low calorie intake and restricted food choices. While you may see some initial weight loss, crash dieting is generally not recommended for long-term weight management or overall health. Because of its limitations, crash dieting can lead to potential nutrient deficiencies and negative health consequences, such as slowed metabolism, weight regain, and muscle loss (rather than fat loss, which is what most people hope for when seeking to lose weight!). “
She also noted that “any weight loss you see could also be the result of water loss due to extreme restrictions.” In addition, crash diets often don’t contain the essential nutrients your body needs to function – nutrient-rich diets contain vitamins, minerals, macronutrients, and micronutrients, while crash diets often don’t. You’ll often find yourself putting the weight back on.”
Crash diets are only suitable for short-term weight loss. Does that mean they’re not safe? Find out in the next section.
Is Crash Dieting Safe?
Crash dieting is safe if you do it for one or two days. Sometimes doctors recommend crash diets to people who need to lose weight quickly for surgery. But without professional supervision, adopting a very low-calorie diet for a long time can leave you in trouble.
According to Jesse Fader, “Crash diets don’t work because they are drastic and unsustainable changes. People often don’t stick with the changes they make over the long term. Then, once the diet is over, people tend to go back to their old eating habits and gain the weight back.”
How to diet safely? Scroll down to find the answer.
Here’s how to diet safely:
- Choose a crash diet that “works” – A crash diet can be emotionally taxing, but when you have so many options, choose one that is convenient for you. If you don’t like eating just one apple a day (only under a doctor’s supervision), opt for a soup-based diet that will keep you full and nourished.
- Reduce refined sugar intake – Avoid refined sugar or foods that contain refined sugar, such as cakes, pastries, doughnuts, ketchup, dips, candy, and chocolate.
- Snack Smart – Crash dieting is easy if you know how to snack smart. Eat low-calorie, nutrient-rich foods such as fruit, baby carrots, cucumbers, unsalted nuts (in limited quantities), half a cup of plain yogurt, sliced vegetables with homemade yogurt sauce, and green tea.
- Do it for a limited time – each fast food diet has a duration, such as two days or seven days. Stick to the prescribed duration and you won’t overwhelm your body with a low-calorie diet. If weight loss is not urgent, you can follow a 1200 or 1500 calorie diet.
- Avoid social gatherings if possible – you know what happens when you go to parties and get-togethers – eating goes out the window!
- Therefore, it is best to avoid parties. If you need to provide support to a friend or family member (and you happen to live in the same city), bring food or choose food that won’t affect your diet.
Avoid alcohol – alcohol is converted to sugar and stored as fat. In addition, drinking alcohol during a crash diet may cause a glucose imbalance in the body. - Avoid strenuous exercise – If you are on a Master Detox or juice diet, it is best to avoid exercise. You can do light stretching and yoga, but not full cardio and strength training.
- Drink water with rehydration salts – Crash diets may require you to drink water or juice regularly.
- Drink water with rehydration salts at least twice a day to maintain your electrolyte balance.
Note: Talk to your doctor before starting a crash diet.
The idea behind crash dieting is to restrict calories excessively, thereby reducing body fat and weight.
The figure below is taken from a six-month study that looked at the effects of a 25% calorie restricted diet. It showed that people who followed the diet gradually lost weight compared to those who did not.
If you diet safely, you can reap the following benefits.
- The benefits of crash dieting
- May result in rapid weight loss
- Can give people instant gratification
- May be fine before some procedures (must be approved by your doctor)
- The cost could be lower
Blogger Cam Fu recounts his experience of going on an 8-week crash diet in order to compete in a dieting competition. “I lost a total of 37.2 pounds,” he said. I’m the lightest I’ve been in at least five years.”
Here are a few things you must keep in mind before embarking on a crash diet.
Things to Do Before a Crash Diet:
- Calculate how many days are left before a particular event. If there is still a month to go, try the
- Mediterranean diet and do some cardio exercise to lose weight.
- Talk to a dietitian or your doctor, especially if you are a new mother, have undergone surgery, have a BMI over 30, are taking antidepressants or any other medications that hinder weight loss, or are over the age of 50.
- Stock the kitchen with food for the coming week. Get rid of all other “distracting foods.”
- Keep a journal. You will experience mood swings. Journaling can help during those times.
But when you abuse crash diets, things can go very wrong. Here are the side effects:
What Happens When You Abuse Crash Diets?
Tips: Studies have shown that long-term dieting can lead to food obsession, distraction, irritability, fatigue, overeating, and overeating (1).
It’s easy to get carried away and abuse crash diets. In this case, the following things can happen:
- Anxiety
- Dejected
- Muscle loss
- Eating disorder
- Slow metabolism
- Cell and organ function is slowed down
- Impaired immunity
- Impaired brain function
- Skin problem
- Unhealthy weight loss
- Skeletal weakness
- inattention
- alopecia
Crash dieting for long periods of time is unhealthy and should not be done without professional guidance. Which brings us to our next topic – Should teenagers go on a diet? Because crash diets work so quickly, many teenagers want to follow them. But should they? Here’s a look at it.
Should Teenagers Go On a Diet?
No, teenagers shouldn’t diet. The age of 13 to 19 is part of the growth phase. Crash dieting or using extreme weight loss methods can stunt your growth, affect your mental health, and can lead to harmful weight loss. It is seen as a quick fix for weight loss, but it includes unsustainable eating plans that won’t show the expected results in the long run and can lead to health problems. If you do need to lose weight, seek professional help.
Talk to a registered dietitian and get a customized diet sheet. You must also stay physically active and commit to staying healthy and strong. Also, remember that you don’t have to wear any size to feel beautiful and valuable. Healthy, happy, pursue your dreams.
Crash Diets Are Not Good For Long-Term Weight Loss
Crash diets are unsustainable and unhealthy. Most of the weight you lose is water weight. In addition, most people tend to abuse these diets, which can lead to health problems. We don’t recommend going on unsupervised crash diets. Before trying our sample 7-day Crash diet plan, you must consult your doctor.
