Very Low Calorie Diets - The Truth

If you want to lose some weight then you may be thinking about very low calorie diets and whether they work or not. Even the experts are not in agreement on what diet works best for weight loss, and as you probably know there are loads of theories out there. People who wish to just lose a few pounds are not usually recommended to go on diets that restrict your calories greatly, it's usually extremely obese people who are recommended for these kinds of diets. The following information might be useful to you if you're thinking about going on a very low calorie diet.

The biggest advantage with a very low calorie diet is that patients who are obese and have a weight related medical issue can drop the weight very fast. They can lose up to 20 lbs per month as it's possible to lose 5 lbs each week on this kind of diet. For people who may have heart disease, high cholesterol, hypertension or diabetes, this can be extremely beneficial, even life saving. Doctor guidance is rather important for this kind of weight loss and if you have a condition that's already being treated then it's crucial. To ensure you keep losing weight it's important to speak with your doctor to come up with a plan. Medifast is the name of a very well known diet plan that has proven to be useful in assisting people to lose some weight. Meal replacement products are supplied to users to make sure that they don't go over the calorie restrictions. Although you have to eat meals supplied by Medifast when on this diet, there is some variety, and meals include lean meats, eggs, vegetables and even desserts such as puddings. With the Medifast diet you can consume between 800 and 1000 calories everyday, which is slightly over the typical very low calorie diet calorie intake, so technically it's not a strict very low calorie diet. One advantage to Medifast is that on this diet your intake of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients is calculated so that you won't be deficient in anything, which is always a risk if you try to restrict calories on your own.

If you look from the point of overall fitness then you will see very low calorie diets have serious drawbacks. Fat is not all you will lose by restricting your calories, you will also lose muscle which can be bad for several reasons. When women go on this diet there is an increased risk of osteoporosis because of the deficiency of dairy foods and calcium. Of course, working out with weights or other resistance training can help to maintain muscle mass, but very often people who are on very low calorie diets lack energy. In some cases, anemia can be a risk. Unless you are seriously overweight then you should not be thinking about going on a very low calorie diet as it could risk your health. It can be all too tempting to go on a very low calorie diet due to the promise of losing weight fast, and choosing a diet plan for yourself can be hard. However, they should be approached with caution unless a doctor is supervising your diet. It can be very dangerous to go on a very low calorie diet without sufficient guidance.