The Danger of Low Calorie Diets: How To Avoid The Yo-Yo Diet
Trap
Low Calorie Diets have risen in popularity in the past 20 years
because of the rise in obesity in the USA. Obesity affects more
than 30 percent of U.S. adults, and is fuelling an industry
dedicated to low-calorie foods and drinks, diet and slimming
aids. that's over 60 million people, are obese.
A low calorie diet is one that restricts the amount of calories
you eat in any given day to 1500 or less. Low calorie diets are
not to be mistaken with Very Low Calorie Diets (VLCDs) which are
commercially prepared formulas, such as meal replacement shakes
and soups of about 800 calories that replace the entire usual
food intake for several weeks or months.
Studies have shown that low calorie diets can produce weight
loss in obese patients of about 3 to 5 pounds per week, for an
average total weight loss of 44 pounds over 12 weeks. Such a
weight loss can rapidly improve obesity-related medical
conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, and high
cholesterol.
However, low calorie diets carry many health risks, and like
most diets, have a 95% failure rate. When you go on a low
calorie diet, you're most likely to suffer from the "starvation
response". This is when your body realises that it's not getting
enough energy, and starts to preserve its supply of fat by
burning fewer calories. In addition, when you reduce the amount
of calories you eat, your brain receives signals to eat more,
your appetite is stimulated and you have feelings of hunger and
deprivation.
While low calorie diets can result in weight loss in the first
few weeks and months of starting the diet, the majority of the
weight lost is not fat. This is because low calorie diets do not
provide sufficient energy to fuel the body's basic functions
such as breathing, circulation, and digestion etc. In order to
provide the fuel to keep itself alive, the body breaks down
muscle tissue, which is easily convertible into glucose, and is
easier to access and break down into energy than fat.
In effect, low calorie diets reduce the amount of lean muscle
tissue in the body, which has a knock-on effect of reducing the
basal metabolic rate. Lean muscle tissue is metabolically
active, meaning that the more lean muscle tissue an individual
has, the more calories are burned. The reduction in lean muscle
tissue also reduces the body's ability to burn fat.
When you finally lose the weight and start eating normally, your
body can no longer burn calories at the rate it did before your
diet because you now have less lean muscle tissue! You become
locked in a vicious cycle of dieting and weight gain - simply
because your body breaks down muscle for glucose before it
breaks down fat. Although you might only end up gaining back the
original weight you lost, you are will end up fatter because you
have lost lean muscle tissue and gained back fat.
The result of the loss of lean muscle tisssue and the weight
gain arising from it is termed the Yo-Yo effect. Many dieters,
when finding that they have regained the weight they have lost,
embark on another diet, which plunges them further into lean
muscle tissue loss.
So, what is the solution to permanent weight loss? To lose
weight effectively, you need to consume enough energy to burn
fat, and eat the right foods to maintain your level of lean
muscle tissue. A sensible balance of a healthy diet and moderate
exercise is more effective in achieving a permanent weight loss
than low-calorie diets.