Has anyone heard of the VLCD (diet) ?

UsedToBeHusky

Muscle

:-)
Is there any difference in folks who use VLCD's vs LCD's in the area of loss of muscle mass, ceteris paribus?

I don't have any knowledge of such and, in my case, I lost something like 70 pounds of mass and only 7 pounds of lean body mass. I do not know to what extent I lost muscle mass.

Quit condoning this like it's something that people should do because it worked for you! You had 90+lbs to lose didn't you? The OP doesn't appear to have that much to lose and A LOT of young impressional girls on here who are already healthy weights do not either, they don't need this idea put into their minds anymore than they already have that a crash diet is anywhere close to healthy for them or will give them their desired results. Thank you Suzeysmum.

While you present a valid concern, at the same time, obese people need to know that this is an option for them. Obesity is a world wide epidemic, which means that the majority of the new users that come to this site every day are obese. Condemning people who have chosen this method for themselves is the same as discriminating against obese people. Why can't we just stamp a disclaimer on these posts and let them ride? Why does everyone on this site who is only "overweight" feel the need to take responsibility for every other individual who uses this site? No the OP is not obese and is likely taking a greater risk than ATT949 but that doesn't make the method any less valid. What works for one does not work for all. That is just a universal truth. People who are morbidly obese are called "morbidly" for a reason, meaning that their life is in danger from the obesity. They need to see faster results. Stop discriminating against members who choose this method because not everyone who chooses it is choosing it because they are anorexic!

ATT949

Quit condoning this like it's something that people should do because it worked for you!
You had 90+lbs to lose didn't you? The OP doesn't appear to have that much to lose and A LOT of young impressional girls on here who are already healthy weights do not either, they don't need this idea put into their minds anymore than they already have that a crash diet is anywhere close to healthy for them or will give them their desired results. Thank you Suzeysmum.

"condoning" - there's no need for me to "condone" what the OP is doing. First off, my opinion is just…one man's opinion — it's not an endorsement.

Second, she's not proposing anything that's not done, day in and day out by people across the country.

Finally, I'm happy with the approach that I've taken to losing weight and I think people should consider it as an alternative.

When I started on MFP, I read through all of the admonitions about "don't go below 1200 calories or…" and it did not square with what I've seen over the course of my life. As a result of my time in the Army, I met folks who routinely ate well below 1200 net calories for extended periods while operating in extreme physical environments and they had zero long term negative effects.

Also, I'm familiar with the program offered by a company here in SoCal that's helped hundreds of thousands of people lose weight in their 40+ year history They put their patients on a diet of less than 1000 calories per day and, in the course of the program, you will lose, generally speaking, 10% of your body mass in 10 weeks.

That program was the final "push" that got me to start losing weight. The clinic, that my GF runs, has before and after pictures of dozens of folks who have lost lots and lots of weight. It's amazing to see walls lined with pix of every day folks who have dropped tons of weight!

So, I read the admonitions and warnings of "Never go below 1200 calories or…" and yet I was faced with real life examples of folks who ate well under that level and had excellent outcomes. I decided to take a similar approach to losing weight and I had a superb outcome.

One of the things that I believe about losing weight is that there are lots of ways to lose weight. Some folks want to follow a 1200 calorie diet. Some lose weight at 2000 cals/day. Some folks lose weight at 800 to 1000 cals/day.

What ever approach you take, I hope it works well for you.

writtenINthestars

Hmmpf. Well I asked questions to learn more and got no answers. I tried to be supportive and got deleted. So I give up. Good luck on your diet!

Health_Gal

VLCD were created to help people that were extremely overweight. Unfortunately, fad VLCD are often being used by people that are not even obese to lose "vanity weight" so they can look great in a bikini, and the people that do these fad VLCD diet plans often do it with no awareness of the potential dangers and without medical supervision, as most doctors would not put people that are not severely overweight on an extremely low calorie diet.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/guide/low-calorie-diets

http://women.webmd.com/pharmacist-11/rapid-weight-loss

While we are on the topic, everyone please stay away from the HCG VLCD diet (500 calories a day). It is a horrible starvation diet that can do so much more damage than good. I have seen so many friends think they were doing great on it, and then find out that all those weeks of starvation wrecked their metabolism, and now they are heavier than ever.

http://www.myhealthnewsdaily.com/hcg-diet-dangerous-1428


Your long term health is worth so much more than rapid weight loss on any fad diet!