MILLIONS have been warned to ditch the diets in a bid to reduce deadly side effects.

A new study has revealed that dieting when you don't need to could raise your risk of diabetes.

Diabetes is a common illness and if left untreated it can lead to serious complications such as heart disease, nerve damage and chronic kidney disease.

Medics at Harvard University in the US revealed that you're also more likely to gain weight later in life if you diet when you aren't obese.

This refers to anyone who has abnormal or excessive fat accumulation which poses a risk to health and wellbeing.

Writing in PLOS Medicine, the experts said those who were at a normal weight and lost 10lb were at a higher risk of type 2 diabetes.

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This was in comparison to those the same weight as them, who didn't diet.

The reason behind this, the gurus said, could be because those who had dramatic weight loss had higher levels of hunger hormones.

In turn, this would make them more likely to crave junk food – meaning they would likely gain fat easily.

Due to their findings, the team warned that dieting should only be undertaken by those who 'really need it'.

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The results also showed that those who lost weight through fad diets were more likely to gain weight in later life.

Harvard epidemiologist who led the study, Dr Qi Sun said the team had been surprised at the findings.

"We now know that such observations are supported by biology that unfortunately entails adverse health outcomes when lean individuals try to lose weight intentionally.

"The good news is that individuals with obesity will clearly benefit from losing a few pounds, and the health benefits last even when the weight loss is temporary."

Dr Sun said that weight loss may have led to biological changes that put people at risk of gaining more weight.

Medics looked at data for over 200,00 people, the majority of which were female.

These people were asked how they lost weight, whether that was through low calorie diets, exercising, these two combined, commercial weight programmes, fasting or diet pills.

Participants were tracked over a 10 year period and medics found that those who were at a normal weight and dieted were 54 per cent more likely to get diabetes.

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Obese adults who dieted were less likely to develop diabetes in comparison to other participants.

However, overweight adults who lost weight rapidly were 42 per cent more likely to develop the illness.

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