"Jump-Starting Weight Loss"

MercuryBlue

I've been hearing this phrase a lot lately and am wondering how safe it is.

For example, with my 10 Minute Trainer program, I received a '10 Days Lean Jean' plan. It's a 10-day, 1000 calorie plan meant to 'jump start' weight loss while doing the workouts. They say men should add an addition 100 or 200 calories per day. They DO caution that you shouldn't eat like that after the 10 day period, as "A balanced long-term diet contains a greater variety of fruits and more complex carbs" It's meant for short-term weight loss or 'jump-starting' an improved nutrition plan.

A lot of people talk about 'jump-starting' weight loss. It's brought up in a lot of books, magazines, etc. But I'm also hearing a lot about starvation mode and the importance of eating NO LESS than 1200 calories (average) per day.

So I guess I have a two-part question:

1) How effective/necessary is it really to 'jump-start' a weight loss program? Are there any risks involved?

2) How long does it take the average person's body to kick into 'starvation mode'? That is, how long could the average person eat 1000 before their body realizes something is wrong?


I ask this because I am really unclear about the answer. There are days when I just can't bring myself to eat all of my calories and hover around the 1000-1100 calorie per day mark. These days are VERY few and far between and I would believe that as long as this doesn't happen very often, it would be okay. I have no intention of 'jump starting' my weight loss plan- I just want to eat healthy and well. I guess I just want to make sure I'm not doing any long-term harm by having occassional (and by occassional I mean once or twice a month) days where I'm not eating as much as I should.

songbyrdsweet

There isn't a 'jump start' feature in the human body. You can eat too much, too little, or just enough. It will respond with the same systematic release of glycogen, then some protein, then a lot of fat, and finally a lot of protein in the event of caloric deprivation. At about 4-18 hrs of fasting you're in a post-absorptive state, meaning you've used up dietary sources of nutrients in the gut and now you're starting to release glucose from the liver. At about 18hrs-2days of fasting you're using a moderately high amount of amino acids to produce ketones as you're out of glycogen. Longer than a couple days and you shift to utilizing mostly fat to spare protein, because not only will you break down skeletal muscle for amino acids, but smooth muscle and organs. You can't skip over the protein utilization and move right onto fat loss. The body doesn't function that way. That said, eating 1,000 calories isn't fasting, so it would take longer than a day or two to start losing appreciable amounts of muscle mass.