Crash dieting is the harmful alternative to simply living a healthy lifestyle. Who would want to give up that luscious chocolate sundae or buttery bowl of popcorn? Instead, many girls will often turn to crash diets, temporarily starving themselves just before a special event such as bikini season.

However, crash dieting is unhealthy and ineffective. The diet may initially seem successful as the body loses a few pounds in water weight, but muscle mass is also broken down, which inevitably slows the metabolism, resulting in fewer calories burned. This means that when crash dieters go back to their usual eating habits, they will gain the weight back and typically end up weighing more than they did in the beginning, because of their slowed metabolism.

Crash diets are more prevalent among high school girls, who are four times more likely to diet than boys according to the National Eating Disorder Association, yet they are not the only ones dieting. Often high school boys practice extreme dieting for athletic reasons. Take a male wrestler, for example. They are constantly watching their weight during the season in order to be at the high end of a certain weight class.

Though crash dieting is not encouraged or allowed in the Gunn wrestling program, “a large number do it anyway,” an anonymous Gunn wrestler said. Skipping dinner the night prior to a match or eating only lettuce for half a week before a meet are some of the techniques used to lose that extra pound.

During the hour between weigh-in and the match, there is a trend in which wrestlers stock up on food and gain energy right before they compete. However, wrestlers will find themselves exhausted more often than not. This is because the vital energy necessary to fuel an athlete does not come in the minutes before a meet, but rather from the previous day.

Not only does crash dieting negatively affect performance, but University of Iowa doctors also found that high school wrestlers on diets ended up with a metabolic rate 15 percent lower than the wrestlers who did not diet. This makes it harder for the dieting wrestlers to burn calories, and ultimately makes them less fit as the season comes to a close.

Whether the motivation is about body image or athletic competition, crash dieting is unhealthy for both males and females alike.