Dear Diary,
My goal is to lose 30 lbs for my wedding which is in 6
months. I have a strategy that I just know will work. 90% of the time I will eat
very little, maybe around 500 or a maximum of 600 calories per day, and during the
weekend, holidays or at parties I will eat and drink whatever my heart desires
with the next day being a "detox" day where I will live on vegetables
and water. My friend did this and she lost so much weight, she looks great! We
don't have time to exercise, but when you eat so little there is no need for
it.
Yours truly,
Starved
Dear Starved,
There can be serious potential consequences to eating so few
calories and also to cycling between overindulging and subsequently fasting in
an effort to compensate. A lack of food can cause the body to go into
starvation mode. Starvation mode is a metabolic response to the body being
deprived of food. The body is
malnourished and breaks down muscle to be used as fuel in an attempt to keep
vital organs functioning. Of course your friend will find every excuse in the
book not to engage in physical activity, her body is exhausted! She feels sick
and tired all the time as her body doesn't have sufficient energy to complete its internal processes let alone
exercise! Extreme fatigue occurs as the body simply does not have sufficient
energy to function. Vitamin deficiency which can lead to many dangerous
conditions including anemia, edema, and even heart failure and stroke can occur.
Women experience menstrual irregularities which can lead to fertility issues.
And the list goes on and on!
Yes, these very low calorie diets can lead to initial rapid
weight loss. However, much of this is water weight and the latter weight loss
includes a significant amount of muscle loss.
So, let me share the bottom line with you, the point at
which I come into the picture...
These people come to see me and complain that
they are "a mess." Yes, initially they lost weight, but now they find
it impossible to sustain the very low calorie diet that they were on and find
that they are regaining the weight rapidly, much quicker than they lost it, and
they have very little muscle tone and complain they are "flabby."
They are plain scared to eat in fear of gaining weight. They need to gradually
learn to introduce a normalized eating pattern but often have difficulty eating
3 meals and snacking in between as they are afraid this is "too much food."
So as you can see a vicious cycle that is extremely difficult to break is
created.
Very low calorie diets are not the way to go. They are not
sustainable. Even if you are looking for rapid results you can set yourself up
for long term consequences that are plain just not worth it. Instead, do
yourself a favor and see a Registered Dietitian, the food and nutrition expert,
to help you with your weight loss goals or just to learn how to generate a healthy
lifestyle for you and your family.
Yours truly,
Idy Neuman MS, RD, CDN
