The Danger of Low Calorie Diets: How To Avoid The Yo-Yo Diet Trap

Author: Shola Osho

Low Calorie Diets have risen in popularity in the past 20 years because of the rise in obesity in the USA. Obesity affects more than 30 percent of U.S. adults, and is fuelling an industry dedicated to low-calorie foods and drinks, diet and slimming aids. that's over 60 million people, are obese.
A low calorie diet is one that restricts the amount of calories you eat in any given day to 1500 or less. Low calorie diets are not to be mistaken with Very Low Calorie Diets (VLCDs) which are commercially prepared formulas, such as meal replacement shakes and soups of about 800 calories that replace the entire usual food intake for several weeks or months.
Studies have shown that low calorie diets can produce weight loss in obese patients of about 3 to 5 pounds per week, for an average total weight loss of 44 pounds over 12 weeks. Such a weight loss can rapidly improve obesity-related medical conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
However, low calorie diets carry many health risks, and like most diets, have a 95% failure rate. When you go on a low calorie diet, you're most likely to suffer from the "starvation response". This is when your body realises that it's not getting enough energy, and starts to preserve its supply of fat by burning fewer calories. In addition, when you reduce the amount of calories you eat, your brain receives signals to eat more, your appetite is stimulated and you have feelings of hunger and deprivation.
While low calorie diets can result in weight loss in the first few weeks and months of starting the diet, the majority of the weight lost is not fat. This is because low calorie diets do not provide sufficient energy to fuel the body's basic functions such as breathing, circulation, and digestion etc. In order to provide the fuel to keep itself alive, the body breaks down muscle tissue, which is easily convertible into glucose, and is easier to access and break down into energy than fat.
In effect, low calorie diets reduce the amount of lean muscle tissue in the body, which has a knock-on effect of reducing the basal metabolic rate. Lean muscle tissue is metabolically active, meaning that the more lean muscle tissue an individual has, the more calories are burned. The reduction in lean muscle tissue also reduces the body's ability to burn fat.
When you finally lose the weight and start eating normally, your body can no longer burn calories at the rate it did before your diet because you now have less lean muscle tissue! You become locked in a vicious cycle of dieting and weight gain - simply because your body breaks down muscle for glucose before it breaks down fat. Although you might only end up gaining back the original weight you lost, you are will end up fatter because you have lost lean muscle tissue and gained back fat.
The result of the loss of lean muscle tisssue and the weight gain arising from it is termed the Yo-Yo effect. Many dieters, when finding that they have regained the weight they have lost, embark on another diet, which plunges them further into lean muscle tissue loss.
So, what is the solution to permanent weight loss? To lose weight effectively, you need to consume enough energy to burn fat, and eat the right foods to maintain your level of lean muscle tissue. A sensible balance of a healthy diet and moderate exercise is more effective in achieving a permanent weight loss than low-calorie diets

Low Calorie Diet - Meet your Weight Loss Goal

Author: Dr John Anne

Low calorie diet is not only effective in treating obesity but also maintaining a healthy balance. A low calorie diet can comprise of 1000 to 1800 calories per day. With the help of this diet, one can manage his weight. The expert health practitioners and doctors recommend the healthy diet depending on individualized needs to meet the weight-loss goals. In a standard adult body weight, the daily protein intake should be around 0.8gm per kg of standard body weight. If the diet doesn't consist of 1200 calories, vitamin supplements may become necessary.Expert medical practitioners or dieticians recommend the low calorie diet depending on patient's eating behavior, preparation of food, meal prototype, usual food share capability, nutritional sufficiency, exercise and other relevant factors. With a satisfactory output by analyzing the above factors, doctors then recommend individual program for attaining and maintaining ideal weight.Feeling hungry is too common among individuals on low calorie diet. To fulfill this need, patients are recommended to satisfy their appetite with low calorie foods such as raw vegetables, broth, black tea or coffee or any other sugar free beverages. If the patient is not suffering from any sort of cardiac problem or edema, doctors usually do not recommend sodium restricted diet.Effectiveness of Very Low Calorie DietVLCD or very low calorie diet is generally recommended to severely obese people for the purpose of short term weight loss. It is also effective for moderately obese individuals. VLCD allows an average weight loss of 3 to 5 pounds per week. Not only weight loss, but VLCD also aids in alleviating a whole host of medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. VLCD is simply great for short term weight loss, however, modest dietary restrictions intended for long term benefits are found to be more effective than that of VLCD.A combination of VLCD with exercise and cognitive-behavioral therapy can offer a long term weight loss benefit. The cognitive-behavioral therapy helps in recognizing the cause of the problem and guides for corresponding moderation in eating behavior pattern.How safe is Very Low Calorie Diet?VLCD is not suitable for everyone. If you are suffering from obesity and the BMI or Body Mass Index is greater than 30, you may be supervised with VLCD under proper medical condition. However, BMI less than 30 may not be recommended for VLCD unless prevalent medical conditions occurred due to obesity problem.VLCD is recommended by the doctor precisely on case-by-case basis. Only receiving proper medical guidance from your doctor, you can switch to very low calorie diet. You cannot depend on VLCD if you are pregnant or if you practice breastfeeding. Typically, it is not recommended to the growing age, children and adolescents, expect they do not belong to any specialized treatment plan. This diet is also not suitable for people over 50 years of age due to several age-related factors such as preexisting medicinal conditions, possible side-effects, etc.Side Effects of Very Low Calorie DietTypically, minor side effects such as diarrhea, constipation, fatigue and nausea are reported from individuals on VLCD for 4-6weeks. These complications are indeed short-term and people can improve health conditions rapidly. These problems generally do not prevent individuals in finishing the diet program successfully.However, there are serious side effects involved with VLCD as well. The most serious among all is gallstone formation. During rapid weight loss, it is common to see developing gallstone, especially in the case of obese women. It is assumed that the rapid weight loss slows down the gallbladder's ability for bile contraction. Although, it is a serious health complication, but no research has yet confirmed whether VLCD is directly responsible for the occurrence of gallstone or the amount of rapid weight loss causes the problem.To maintain good health, a proper balance of food from different food groups is needed. Getting good nutrition is difficult in as few as 800 calories and it becomes fatal if someone only depends on such diet day after day.Truly speaking, whenever you come out from the low calorie diet, you have every possibility to regain weight if you do not maintain healthy eating practice, physical exercise, along with an improved outlook towards your eating pattern.

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Low Calorie Diet Programs

Author: Marvin J Markus

Low calorie diet programs have been around forever. Is there any diet idea older than the low calorie diet? I don't think so. They consist of a very simple dieting idea: Eat less food. Sometimes simple ideas are good ideas but not in this case. The fact is that low calorie diet plans are not the best way to lose weight. In this article you will read 7 reasons why very low calorie diets are wrong for you.Reasons why low calorie diets do not work well:1. They slow down the body's metabolism. A slow metabolism will cause your body to hold onto fat as a survival method. Your body will begin to burn muscle instead of fat when it goes into this mode. This is why it's essential that you do not eat too few calories. And it's the #1 reason why low calorie diets are not a good idea.2. They are very difficult to stick with. Even if low calorie diets were effective (and they're not) they are also almost impossible to stick with over a long period of time. There's only so long a person can go eating very small portions. Most people give up on a low calorie diet just a couple of weeks (or even a couple of days!) after starting it.3. They don't teach you what to eat, only to eat less. This is extremely important. A great dieting plan will let you know which foods you really should be eating rather than just telling you to eat less. Many people on low calorie diets end up eating a few high calorie foods (like donuts!) instead of eating a lot of high quality low calorie foods (which is a much better long term plan.) It's extremely important to learn the healthy way to eat. That's the only way to long term healthy eating.4. It's harder to exercise while on a low calorie diet. Exercise should be an important part of any healthy person's lifestyle. It's difficult to have the energy to work out when you are undernourished.5. Your body may not get enough vitamins & nutrients while on a low calorie diet. While you can eat a multivitamin to help with this problem, it's best to get your vitamins & nutrients from your food, not from a vitamin capsule.6. You will gain all of your lost weight back when you go off the diet. It's called "yo-yo dieting" and it happens virtually every time someone tries a low calorie diet. You may lose some pounds (sadly many of those pounds are muscle & not fat) but you're very likely to gain all of those pounds (with interest) as soon as you go off the diet. How sad is it to actually weigh more than you started after you go through this process? It's actually low calorie dieting that is the cause of many people's weight problems.7. Counting calories will make you obsessed with food. You have to keep track of all of the food you eat and how many calories are in it. This means that you will actually be even more obsessed with food than you may already be when you are on this kind of diet. Isn't that a very bad thing? A food obsession is one of the last things that anyone dealing with weight problems needs.

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