I was wondering if anyone was doing the reverse diet, I seen this diet for the first time on the Discovery Health Channel. They had a show called XXXtreme Dieting and a lady on there had lost 167 lbs in less than a years time. I am definitley going to give it a try, It couldn't hurt. I have cut my calories to 1,200 a day and doing cardio and strength workouts. So... If anyone has tried it or is doing it now, please give me some info on how it is working. Thanks!

Hi klambeth82, I haven't heard of that diet before... it does sound interesting though. Goodluck! Let me know how it works out for you.

klambeth, I've never heard of it, but I would be careful not to eat too little. It CAN hurt! Generally, unless being supervised by a physician, it isn't recommended women eat fewer than 1200 calories -- and that would be for women who only have a few pounds to lose.

The more we weigh, the more calories we need to do everything in our life. So, at 1200 calories, it would be very difficult for you to get in all the calories and nutrients you need to function well. You may be able to do it for a while, but it is NOT a lot of calories and many people find it isn't sustainable. And if you stall, there is nowhere lower to go!

While everyone is different, you might find that starting on 1600-1800 calories a day is low enough to lose 1-2 pounds a week and be sustainable. If it's too many calories, you can always drop 100 or so a day and see what happens...

Good luck!

Kayla
Can you fill me in on the diet? Thanks!

I want to echo what Heather said.

I believe this is the diet where you eat a big breakfast, smaller lunch, and even smaller dinner.

Loading most of your calories early in the day is "sound" and works well for many people. Unless your daily schedule requires more physical activity later in the day, I say - give it a try. Just up your calories (Heather's numbers a great starting point).

I believe it's where you eat your largest meal for breakfast, a medium meal for lunch and a small meal for dinner.

There is a saying, "eat like a king for breakfast, a prince for lunch and a pauper for dinner", or something like that. This wouldn't work for me. But it may for others. I'm just not all that hungry first thing in the morning. I find that I like to spread my calories more evenly throughout the day.

I truly believe it doesn't matter when you consume your calories, as long as you stay within your calorie allotment.

I also believe it doesn't matter when you eat your calories. It helps to spread them out through the day to fuel your activities whenever those activities take place; some people are more active in the evening, some in the morning, some at midday, so that's when I'd want to have the most calories to use for energy.

Just to chime in on what Heather said, I would echo that also. A diet of 1200 calories might be fine for weight loss of five pounds or so but it might not be a good idea to start out that low if at a higher weight because as one loses, one has to continually lower calories to continue to make progress and if the starting point is 1200, there isn't much of anywhere to go and a person could start to regain or if they dropped too low, become ill.