Extreme Low Calorie Dieting

There's a lot of recent controversy over extremely low calorie diets, such as the Kimkins diet which is causing all kinds of problems in the low carb community. I'll elaborate more on this tomorrow as its very late and I just wanted to get some thoughts out there before I went to bed. But when I say 'low calorie', I'm referring to eating plans where you take in less than 1000 calories per day, and these can even go as low as 200 calories, if you can believe that. That's about the equivalent of two slices of bread, isn't it?

It's incredible, but some people are just that desperate to lose weight. Of course it works, if you stop eating, you'll lose weight, that's a no-brainer - but at what cost? Followers of the Kimkins plan are eating from 200-700 calories regularly and although they are pleased with their weight loss, they don't appear to be thinking logically about the long term effects of this type of dieting.

When I was recovering from my surgery, there were several days that I only drank water or nibbled pieces of cold soft fruit, or drank a shake. These days, I probably had less than 300 calories, but I knew it was temporary so I didn't fret too much over it. However, oftentimes when I stood up from sitting or laying, I was quite dizzy and weak and I could feel my heart beating in my EARS. It scared me, but I wrote it off to the Vicodin I was taking around the clock. Now, with all that I've been reading at this site Kimkins Survivors, I realize that it was likely more closely related to my not having enough food in my system. But I was able to convince myself it was temporary and no big deal - which is what desperate dieters do as they ignore the dangerous warning signs that their bodies want FOOD. Kimkins members even celebrate this unhealthy state by coining the phrase SNATT (for slightly nauseous all the time), apparently, over time, this produces some state of euphoria similar to what hunger strikers feel when they reach the point that they're no longer hungry.

A very sobering realization is that most of us have the choice to eat so we don't have to suffer - but so many people in the world don't have a choice, and they live with hunger daily. In a future entry, I'm going to focus on some of the ways we can help ease hunger in the world for those that don't have a choice.

Tomorrow, I'll present some facts about calorie restriction and the minimums that our bodies need to stay healthy. We get so caught up in trying to be beautiful, but we've got to be safe too. I think we as women fall into this trap probably more than men, but they are certainly slaves to the same mindset.

low carb diet