500 calories a day program?

jduggans

NO it will NOT work. Anything below 1200 calories and the body can't manufacture vitamins and minerals. Besides this, not eating vegetables is just as dangerous. I don't know who designed that diet, but as a certified personal trainer, it's a diet that could have long term health risk and the body will breakdown muscle tissue and use it for energy. This lost of muscle tissue is permanent.

yarwell

Anything below 1200 calories and the body can't manufacture vitamins and minerals

You actually believe this stuff ? Or worse, someone taught you it ? Wow.

ladyraven68

ive just deleted a friend off my friends list as she was doing alternate day fasting so 1 day she would eat under 500cals (somedays she ony eat 2 cereal bars all day which amounted to 280cals!!) and the day after that she would eat what ever she wanted and so on and so on!! how on earth is that healthy!!!!

It was the subject of a UK TV programme, and showed to have major health benefits. Full study here.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/9480451/The-52-diet-can-it-help-you-lose-weight-and-live-longer.html

ADF and ESE are perfectly healthy.

I'm guessing ADF = Alternate day fasting, and ESE = Eat stop Eat?

Neither appeal to me, but I have seen enough evidence of their benefits not to accuse their followers of doing anything unhealthy.

Naybelline

yup this diet exists, it's called natural selection. It's used to help us identify the dumbest people on earth when they aren't wearing an Ed Hardy shirt

LOL!!!

_Punjab

I actually started my weight loss on one of these programs. They gave you injections and a tons of vitamins to take to supplement for what you weren't eating. Week one was lean protein and reduced fat dairy, no vegetables or fruit, and of course no carbs. After week one, they have you eat lean protein every two hours and have you doing resistance exercises so that you aren't losing muscle. You are limited to 25 grams of carbohydrates per day. They have you eating either two servings of vegetables or one serving of vegetables and one serving of fruit a day. And you eat one healthy fat a day (nuts, avocado, etc). You do not count your fruits and vegetables or healthy fat as part of your daily calories. They do bump up your calories a bit after a few weeks, too, but not by much (mine was 700-800).

It worked very well the first few weeks. I was losing fat mass and did not lose any muscle (your weekly weight in is done on a body fat scale). I lost 15 pounds the first three weeks and then slowed down to a more healthy 1-2 pounds a week.

Once you get to about a month to a month and a half into the program, though, you're ready to die because of how limited the food choices that they give you are. I couldn't handle it anymore. It was NOT a realistic and sustainable lifestyle change. What ended up happening to me was that I got so bored of the food that was "acceptable", but was so determined to not give up on trying to lose weight, that I ended up struggling to eat anything at all (I would get maybe 300 calories a day).

That's when I turned to My Fitness Pal and have been very happy ever since. MFP is a realistic change that will help you lose weight and stick with it. Trust me, your coworkers diet is not going to last. He or she may lose weight initially, but it is not something that they're going to be happy with sticking to in the long term.

AbsoluteNG

It's called PSMF but really hard to do. Intermittent fasting is way easier for me to do.

AbsoluteNG

500 cal all protein is PSMF and it can work. Link to pictures below from bodybuilding.com forums. It's not easy to do but can get you good results in 2 to 3 weeks for that special event you are looking to attend if you have the will power. I've tried it and couldn't make it past 2 days and much prefer Intermittent Fasting.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=121060001&highlight=psmf

BordersGirl

I did a similar plan for a while to shift weight quickly and no I don't have an Ed Hardy shirt. It was a total food replacement diet using meal replacement packs that are nutritionally balanced. I started with a BMI over 40 with high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar levels and feeling generally rubbish, and just over 6 stone later my BMI is almost at 25, my blood pressure etc. is normal and I'm feeling great.

Sorry to disappoint but contrary to popular opinion my body did not pile all the weight back on once I upped the calories. I still have around a stone to lose and am now losing that slowly by having 1200 calories / 100g carbs during the week and I eat up to my TDEE at weekends when I have pretty much what I want. It was my choice to lose this way and for me it has worked well, and broke the cycle of drinking too much and eating too much / the wrong things that were the reason I was obese to start with. It's not a diet for everyone but it worked fabulously well for me. In fact it was easy and there was never a point where I felt weak, light headed, hungry or cranky.

MissMormie

500 calories a day may not be the best idea ever, but especially for someone who's very much overweight the quick weight loss will give a bigger boost to overall health than the risks of eating low calories. Especially if vitamin and mineral supplements are used.

Read this if you think it'll break down your metabolism completely: http://edwardshapard.com/arete/health/patient-on-longest-fast-ever-loses-276-pounds-in-382-days/
It's about a guy who fasted for 382 days. That's over a year. And his health improved a lot during this time.

Now I absolutely would not recommend anyone to do that unless under strict supervision of a doctor, but don't look so negatively at eating very low amounts of calories. It's not nearly as bad as some people think.

MattKerklin

Have your friend search "in place of a roadmap 2.0" which is an eye opening piece

jjh1024

HAHAHAHA!!!! :laugh:
That was the funniest response in a long time

Pomroy89

I am *NOT* promoting this, but one of my coworkers has just started a program that only allows her to eat 500 calories a day. The first week was protein only (no veggies). Is this something that anyone else has heard of? Is it reasonable?

500 calories doesn't sound healthy to me...

I expect it is not sustainable and as soon as she goes over she will likely pile on weight x

Helloitsdan

Have your friend search "in place of a roadmap 2.0" which is an eye opening piece

Props!
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/8017-in-place-of-a-road-map

WhoTheHellIsBen

How is this thread still going ?!?!?!