Very low calorie diets are often called fasting but I called them starvation diets because that is what is happening to your body if you are consuming less than 800 calories per day and using your own muscle and fat tissue to supply your daily energy needs. Short term fasting is fine so long as it is under three days or less because your health can recover but any longer than that can cause severe damage to your body’s organs.
Which ever type of diet you choose, it’s smarter to pre-plan and ease into it rather than making a radical shift from one day to the next. Don’t eat three huge fatty, greasy meals the day before your fast and than completely eliminate most of your diet the next. Instead start eliminating high calorie, high fat foods gradually the week before and introduce more and more low calorie until you are physically ready to start your new diet.
If you are going to have a severely restricted diets, don’t exert yourself either physically or mentally. Since your muscles and brain are being deprived of energy, you may not be able to think as sharply, run as quickly or lift as much weight as before the diet.
Just like the start of your diet, you should end it safely and gradually as well. Do not end your fast or extreme diet with a heavy meal. Try eating some additional fruit, soup broth or additional vegetables. If you eat too much after a fast, your body will find it difficult to absorb and you might end up with an upset stomach or worse.
Dieting this way is not recommended unless absolutely necessary by the situation. Starvation diets can decrease your metabolism which means your body will burn off fat and calories much more slowly thus making it even more difficult to lose weight.
Just because some people can show good results very quickly, it is not a long term solution to keeping your weight off. Many studies have shown that people cannot maintain most diets that are very different than their usual pattern of eating. After having success, they quickly regain the weight they lost during the diet once they quit dieting. In fact, most dieters gain more weight than they had before the first dieting attempt, completely defeating the purpose of their goals.
All diets allow for and encourage drinking plenty of water and in general the less calories you consume in food, the more water you should drink. Some people say you should try a water fast to detoxify your body but that can be extremely dangerous if it lasts more than 48 hours. There are laws of nature that you should not break just to achieve a thin figure and extreme dieting is going against how nature designed us to survive. So don’t do it. Consult your family doctor before taking on any fasting or very low calorie diets.
So what should most people do if they want to lose weight? I believe most diets are more damaging than beneficial and that overweight people should make gradual lifestyle changes that are more sustainable long term.
