By Shola Osho
Low Calorie Diets have risen in popularity in the past 20 yearsbecause of the rise in obesity in the USA. Obesity affects morethan 30 percent of U.S. adults, and is fuelling an industrydedicated to low-calorie foods and drinks, diet and slimmingaids. that's over 60 million people, are obese.
A low calorie diet is one that restricts the amount of caloriesyou eat in any given day to 1500 or less. Low calorie diets arenot to be mistaken with Very Low Calorie Diets (VLCDs) which arecommercially prepared formulas, such as meal replacement shakesand soups of about 800 calories that replace the entire usualfood intake for several weeks or months.
Studies have shown that low calorie diets can produce weightloss in obese patients of about 3 to 5 pounds per week, for anaverage total weight loss of 44 pounds over 12 weeks. Such aweight loss can rapidly improve obesity-related medicalconditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, and highcholesterol.
However, low calorie diets carry many health risks, and likemost diets, have a 95% failure rate. When you go on a lowcalorie diet, you're most likely to suffer from the "starvationresponse". This is when your body realises that it's not gettingenough energy, and starts to preserve its supply of fat byburning fewer calories. In addition, when you reduce the amountof calories you eat, your brain receives signals to eat more,your appetite is stimulated and you have feelings of hunger anddeprivation.
While low calorie diets can result in weight loss in the firstfew weeks and months of starting the diet, the majority of theweight lost is not fat. This is because low calorie diets do notprovide sufficient energy to fuel the body's basic functionssuch as breathing, circulation, and digestion etc. In order toprovide the fuel to keep itself alive, the body breaks downmuscle tissue, which is easily convertible into glucose, and iseasier to access and break down into energy than fat.
In effect, low calorie diets reduce the amount of lean muscletissue in the body, which has a knock-on effect of reducing thebasal metabolic rate. Lean muscle tissue is metabolicallyactive, meaning that the more lean muscle tissue an individualhas, the more calories are burned. The reduction in lean muscletissue also reduces the body's ability to burn fat.
When you finally lose the weight and start eating normally, yourbody can no longer burn calories at the rate it did before yourdiet because you now have less lean muscle tissue! You becomelocked in a vicious cycle of dieting and weight gain - simplybecause your body breaks down muscle for glucose before itbreaks down fat. Although you might only end up gaining back theoriginal weight you lost, you are will end up fatter because youhave lost lean muscle tissue and gained back fat.
The result of the loss of lean muscle tisssue and the weightgain 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 leanmuscle tissue loss.
So, what is the solution to permanent weight loss? To loseweight effectively, you need to consume enough energy to burnfat, and eat the right foods to maintain your level of leanmuscle tissue. A sensible balance of a healthy diet and moderateexercise is more effective in achieving a permanent weight lossthan low-calorie diets
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