If you're like many people, you've tried
several types of diets and have not been
happy with the results. You may be
considering trying a low diet or even
'Hyper dieting' or looking at the 500
calorie diet. This may seem ideal, but
you might be in for another disappointment.
A low diet such as the 500 calorie diet is
an extreme way to lose weight and it poses
several health risks. Furthermore, any low
diet where you lose weight extremely quick,
you're apt to gain back all the weight you've
lost and then some more.
A low diet or low calorie diet would be loosely defined as any diet where you would consume 1,200 calories or less in one day. A lot of people will use a very low calorie diet for small lengths of time and combine it with another diet plan to speed up the amount of weight they're losing, or when their weight loss starts leveling out, use low diet such as a 500 calorie diet plan to kick it back into gear again.
As most people know, weight loss isn't just about eating less calories than you burn in a day. Your body can actually go into shock when you starve yourself by not eating enough calories and enter into 'starvation mode.'
During 'starvation mode,' you'll start to see effects you don't want while dieting. Your metabolism rate will decrease and although you are eating less, you'll start not losing any weight at all. Even worse, your body will start to burn muscle tissue which poses health risks.
It's important when doing ay kind of low diet, not to let your body enter 'starvation mode.' You need to be gaining muscle or at least maintaining it, not losing it and boosting metabolism, not slowing it down. So, if you're thinking about doing a low diet such as a 500 calorie diet, you should avoid doing it for long. You should limmit any 500 calorie diet to a week or less and make sure you talk to an expert first, such as a nutritionist or dietician.
A person who is over weight is most likely used to consuming a lot of calories per day. This could be anywhere from 2,000 or more. If calorie intake is suddenly reduced to 500 (a quarter of what the body is used to), it's likely the body will kick into starvation mode pretty quickly. For anyone, 500 calorie diet is too low and may not be of any help.
What a person needs to consume for calories in a day will vary depending on gender, height, body type, what they already weigh, lifestyle, the types of activities they're involved in and if a woman pregnant or breast feeding.
Not all calories are bad. You should be consuming the amount of calories your body requires, yet keep it low enough to still lose weight. It may take a while to figure out the amount of calories your body will need to maintain a healthy weight. This is the number of calories that won't prompt your body to lose weight, yet not gain weight. Take that number and take away 500 calories. This is a great number to go by to lose with without prompting your body to go into starvation mode. This will show greater long term results without shocking your body.
