Dieting is the practice of eating (and drinking) in a regulated fashion to achieve a particular, short-term objective. This is distinct from the more basic concept of "diet," which addresses tie longer-term and more generic habit of nutritional consumption. For example, a vegan eats a diet completely without animal products, including milk; but while this is a diet, it is not "dieting."
There are several kinds of diets:
Weight-loss diets restrict the intake of specific foods, or food in general, to reduce body weight. What works to reduce body weight for one person will not necessarily work for another, due to metabolic differences and lifestyle factors. Also, it's important to note that short-term dieting does not necessarily lead to weight loss in the long term. Reducing the body's food supply causes it to stockpile excess fat as a starvation response once normal eating is resumed - meaning crash dieting leads to small short-term weight loss, then an increase in weight shortly afterwards.Many professional athletes impose weight-gain diets on themselves. For example, wrestlers may overeat in order to achieve a higher weight class. American football players may try to "bulk up" through weight-gain diets in order to gain an advantage on the field with a higher mass.Medical conditions often require the following of special diets. Each of these diets will specifically include or exclude or regulate certain chemicals (and the foods that contain them). For example, a person who has diabetes is often on a diet designed to carefully manage his or her blood sugar level. Epileptics are often put on the Ketogenic Diet. Sufferers of celiac disease must follow a gluten-free diet, the lactose-intolerant are advised to omit milk products, and people with kidney disease must follow a strict low-sodium diet to ease the strain on their kidneys. Treatment of mild hypertension includes adhering to a diet rich in fruits and vegetables and low in fat and sodium. This diet may be tailored to focus on weight loss if that is necessary to control blood pressure.