Low Calorie Diet

Written by Sky Taylor, Diet Bites

What are the positives as well as the negatives associated with low calorie diets?

 

Although a low calorie diet can help reduce the waistline, a diet that is too restricted in calories can (and generally does) do more harm to the body than good. Here are just a few reasons why:

1. Severely restricted diets don't last long and can contribute to yo-yo dieting. The main reason why they don't last for significant periods is because the body has a pretty affirmative attitude and has no hesitation in both expressing as well as in demanding its needs.

It senses that if nutritional needs are not met, it has a high risk of suffering damaging effects, sometimes permanent effects.

I've known many a dieter who lost their hair while on a severely restricted diet - who never fully recovered and who must now deal with thin hair. And I've known many a dieter who used to have a beautiful set of teeth, but bone loss through the course of several severely-restricted diets brought on dental issues.

As to the signals that the body makes known to us, the most common arrives in the form of hunger pains. The body is signaling that the stomach is empty - much like a vehicle starts to sputter just before it runs out of gas.

While the vehicle stops when the gas fumes have evaporated, our body will keep going for a period of time before collapse - but at a much slower pace. With the vehicle, it just sails down the road at top speed until almost the last moment before the fuel is spent.

With the human body, the pace begins to slow the moment the digestive system become deprived of energy. It's running on fumes - the emergency reserves. Which brings us to our next bullet point, the metabolic rate.

2. Severely restricted diets slow down the metabolism burn. If the body didn't respond in this manner, the dieter would 'quit running' just like the vehicle that ran out of fuel.

What is fuel to the body? Food and drink are recognized by the human body as 'energy'.

If you have ever reviewed caloric information and data from authoritative health sources, the nutrition facts are based on 'Energy' or 'kcal' - not identified as 'calories'.

Here is an example of what the raw data nutrients look like for blue cheese.

Nutrition Facts, Calories in Blue Cheese

Nutritional Elements

Units

100 grams

1 oz

1 cubic inch

1 cup, crumbled
Energy, Calories

kcals

353

100

60

477
Protein

g

21.40

6.07

3.64

28.89
Total Fat

g

28.74

8.15

4.89

38.80
Carbohydrates

g

2.34

0.66

0.40

3.16
Fiber, Dietary

g

0.0

0.0

0.0

0.0
Sugars

g

0.50

0.14

0.08

0.68
Saturated Fat

g

18.669

5.293

3.174

25.203
Monounsaturated Fat

g

7.778

2.205

1.322

10.500
Polyunsaturated Fat

g

0.800

0.227

0.136

1.080
Cholesterol

mg

75

21

13

101

3. Severely restricted diets are extremely taxing on the body and may create permanent health issues. The heart is placed at significant risk for permanent damage. Health risks increased with a severely restricted caloric diet is paired with other the counter weight loss supplements and diet pills, as well as with many prescription pills for weight loss. Most speed-up the metabolic rate, thus impacting blood pressure and heart rate, taxing the heart to the max.

In Summary:

Forget low calorie dieting and base your weight loss plan on the number of calories that are required to support your goal weight.

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