Hm, I'm confused. Neither of those links was about very low calorie diets. The first one talked about restricting calories by 300 to 500 (NOT eating that much, restricting by that much). The second one wasn't about very low cal either--just plain old eating fewer cals than burned.
A very low calorie diet is defined as below 800 calories a day. This should never be undertaken unless one is under direct medical supervision. There are serious side effects to eating so little, including gall bladder disease, osteoporosis...
So I googled VLCD and found the following. Has anyone here tried this?
Weight Loss: Very Low-Calorie Diets
Traditional weight loss methods include low-calorie diets that allow between 800 to 1,500 calories a day and encourage regular exercise. However, an alternative method that moderately to severely obese people may consider for significant, short-term weight loss is the very low-calorie diet (VLCD).
Many VLCDs are commercially prepared formulas of 800 calories or less that replace all usual food intake. Others, such as the well-known grapefruit diet (also called the Hollywood Diet), rely on eating a lot of the same low-calorie food or foods. VLCDs are not the same as over-the-counter meal replacements, which are substituted for one or two meals a day.
How Effective Are VLCDs?
A VLCD may allow a severely to moderately obese person to lose about 3 to 5 pounds per week, for an average total weight loss of 44 pounds over 12 weeks. Such a weight loss can improve obesity-related medical conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. However, VLCDs are no more effective than more modest dietary restrictions in the long-term maintenance of reduced weight. Combining a VLCD with behavioral therapy and exercise may increase weight loss and help keep it off for the long-term. Behavioral therapy helps you to recognize what causes you to overeat so that you can consciously change those behaviors.
Are VLCDs Safe?
VLCDs are generally safe when used under proper medical supervision in people with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 30. Use of VLCDs in people with a BMI of 27 to 30 should be reserved for those who have medical complications resulting from their obesity.
VLCDs are not suitable for everyone. Doctors generally recommend them on a case-by-case basis and your doctor will decide whether or not such a diet is appropriate for you. VLCDs are not recommended for pregnant or breastfeeding women, and are not appropriate for children or adolescents except in specialized treatment programs. Due to the potential need for other medications for preexisting conditions, as well as the possibility of side effects, these types of diets may not be suitable for people over 50, either.
What Are the Side Effects to VLCDs?
Many people on a VLCD for 4-16 weeks report minor side effects such as fatigue, constipation, nausea and diarrhea, but these conditions usually improve within a few weeks and rarely prevent people from completing the program.
The most common serious side effect seen with VLCDs is gallstone formation. Gallstones, which frequently develop in obese people (especially women), are even more common during rapid weight loss. The reason for this may be that rapid weight loss appears to decrease the gallbladder's ability to contract bile. But, it is unclear whether VLCDs directly cause gallstones or whether the amount of weight loss is responsible for the formation of gallstones.
What Are the Other Drawbacks?
To be healthy, we need a balance of foods from different food groups. It's quite difficult to get good nutrition in as few as 800 calories (a dietitian would have trouble doing this), especially if one eats the same foods day after day.
Also, once you go off the diet, you will likely regain your weight unless you change your lifestyle and commit to healthy eating, regular physical activity and an improved outlook about food. By sticking to a long-term commitment, you can prevent your weight from drifting back up the scale.
Seems to me the article is stressing VLCDs that are doctor-supervised. Make sure you don't try one WITHOUT doctor supervision...typically, medically-supervised VLCDs are very specific about the foods to eat because it is hard to get in required nutrients on that few calories...you could end up seriously malnourished by undertaking a VLCD without supervision.
Typically a VLCD is only recommended when a person is so obese that getting the weight off them quickly is more important than getting it off them healthy. I am sure you can always find a quack doctor that will justify it.
The Optifast diet which Oprah did in the 80's or 90's is considered a VLCD
Also, once you go off the diet, you will likely regain your weightunless you change your lifestyle and commit to healthy eating, regular physical activity and an improved outlook about food. By sticking to a long-term commitment, you can prevent your weight from drifting back up the scale.
I think that says it all right there - and if you do that, you don't need a VLCD anyway unless your doctor feels you are in imminent danger of heart failure or if you can no longer walk due to your weight.
I've used VLCD alot in the past, both with and without doctor's supervision. One doctor told me I could eat 800 calories a day in candy bars if I want to (so I don't really know whether I'd call this "supervision"). He was also a doctor that when my blood pressure went up from the appetite suppressant he gave me, he just gave me more blood pressure medication.
In my experience, VLCD are the best way to gain weight, causing very rapid weight loss, shortly followed by even more rapid gain and an ending weight 10 to 20 lbs heavier than the starting weight.
Yeah, from what I've read (yeah, no experience here...just from reading) VLCD only work if you transition carefully into a normal diet and don't go back to the diet from before the weight loss...but of course easier said that done!
The "candy bar" advice was given over 25 years ago (and the doctor was pretty old then), but I think it reflected the feelings of the times rather than reflecting on his qualities as a physician (this was a doctor who drove me home himself after I was in a car accident). In the late 70's and early 80's, and definitely more so before then, even doctors were convinced that being overweight was such an incredibly horrible fate with such high risk (both physically and emotionally) than any way the weight could be taken off was a good way, no matter the risks. After all, death is a fate better than obesity, right?
In some ways, that attitude still persists. We're still in the infancy of "healthy dieting" research.
very low calorie diets
