500-calorie Per Day Diet Warning!
By Tiggy Max
Supposing you have tried many other diets and have been disappointed by their results and you now feel you should go for some ‘Hyperdieting’? Then you too may be tempted to look at the 500-Calorie diet … as many other people have.
But stop and think for a moment. You may be setting yourself up for a big disappointment. Why? Of all the very-low-calorie diets around, the 500 calorie diet is one of the most extreme, and it carries health risks as well as being a quick route to excess weight gain afterwards. Yes, that’s right – weight GAIN.
A ‘very low-calorie diet’ is, technically, any diet in which you eat no more than 1200 calories a day. Most people use a very-low-calorie diet for short periods in conjunction with another diet plan they are already on – for example, to:
* speed up overall weight loss
* boost their present diet when it has started to level-out
As most dieters already know, losing weight is just the simple task of burning more calories than you consume. However, a diet that is structured around too few calories for your body’s daily needs can actually shock it into a ‘starvation mode’.
In ‘starvation mode’, the body lowers its metabolic rate and changes it energy sources. This can cause your body to start to burn up your muscle mass. This has two adverse effects:
* your metabolism will simply slow down and you will stop losing weight
* burning muscle-tissue carries other, more serious health risks
Low Calorie Diet The Natural Way
By Aura Luna
Please, just because you want to lose weight, don’t dump your nutritious foods and live on celery sticks and diet sodas. It will hurt you in the long run by depriving you of needed nutrition and fiber.
Instead replace some of your unhealthy foods with healthy foods. You can start a better diet and it will be a low calorie diet compared to what many people have been eating.
Focus on more vegetables in your diet. Especially the leafy green vegetables. Eat 7 or more half-cup servings of vegetables a day. This would mean two or three different servings of vegetables per meal. Eat a variety of vegetables, with a variety of colors each day. This creates visual appeal, different textures and the good nutrition that you need.
Don’t cut them out, but don’t use as much of the root vegetables because they are more starchy. Example: potatoes, sweet potatoes.
Drink water instead of soft drinks and fruit juices. This will lower your calories and provide you with the fluids you need for health and weight loss. Yes, water and plenty of it will help you lose weight.
I saw a show in which an obese teenager did not have a clue about calories or nutrition, but she was very willing to learn. Dr. Phil told her that cutting out the sodas the teenager was drinking would allow her to lose 50 pounds of fat in a year. This may apply to you as well, if you drink a lot of sodas.
Be ready ahead of time for snacks. Don’t reach for the nearest goodie or candy bar, instead get out the snack you thought about ahead of time. Maybe a little cheese and apple, a piece of fruit, or some cottage cheese with mixed fruit. Keep the serving small – it is not a meal, just a snack.