Very Low Calorie Diets

I hate these. I hate them with a passion. They don't work in the long term, they don't teach you new eating habits and there is no way you can nourish your body properly on such a paltry amount of calories.

I actually sympathise with people who are so desperate to lose weight that they would resort to following something like Lighter Life, The Cambridge Diet, Slim Fast, Lipotrim, etc. The one thing these diets have in common is that a huge percentage of people re-gain the weight they lose and most of the time they gain an extra stone or so for good measure.

The sad thing is, desperate people tend to be very blinkered so if someone offers them a way of losing 5 stones in 4 months or 5 stones over 12-18 months, of course, the quicker option is always going to be preferable. However, what they forget is that the longer it takes someone to lose weight, the better chance they have of keeping this weight off. Why? Because the longer you do something, the more it becomes a habit and over a period of 12 months, it's a habit that is likely to stick. For example, around 4 years ago, I cut out refined carbs. I found they were bloating me and I was starving after eating them. Even when my diet was appalling and I was eating an obscene amount of junk food, I never went back to refined carbs as I had got so used to not eating them.

Following a VLCD or a faddy weight loss plan such as slim fast won't teach you about nutrition. It won't teach you what a balanced diet looks like. It won't teach you why you overate in the first place.

When you eat such a pathetic amount of calories, your body starts to realise it's starving. In order to survive this famine, it slows down your metabolism. Your metabolism is your body's natural fat burner, so a slower metabolism means less fat burned. Less fat burned means more fat stored.

What it will do then, is cling onto what food you are feeding it, store it as fat as it has no idea how long this starvation is going to carry on for. Instead, it will start to look to itself and see what it can do without. The first thing to be burned off is your muscle tissue. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue which needs calories to survive. As your body is storing all of the calories you consume as fat, it decides to burn up your lean mass instead. Muscle mass is what regulates your metabolism. So, the more you have, the faster the metabolism and the more food you can eat. The less muscle mass you have the slower the metabolism and the fewer calories your body needs to survive. This is how someone can exist on 1000 calories a day and still not manage to lose weight!

The result of such a diet?

A skinny fat body

Slim, yes. Toned? No way! How can you have a nice toned, firm body if your muscle tissue has been obliterated thanks to such a drastic way of dieting? It's not attractive is it?

I work for a GP and as part of my job, I had to do an audit last year of all the patients that were, or had been, taking orlistat for the previous 12 months. A study of over 30 patients revealed that out of all of them, only 2 people lost weight and kept it off. Over half of them lost weight but re-gained it and the rest actually ended up heavier than when they started.

It won't come as a surprise to discover the people who managed to keep it off saw the pill as an aid to a balanced, healthy diet and active lifestyle and not a magic pill. They realised the changes they had to make were lifelong and not for a duration, which is what a diet indicates - a start and a stop.

So, how can you lose weight in a healthy way and be sure to keep it off?

First and foremost, don't create too big a calorie deficit. 10-15% of total calories is often plenty to restrict via the diet to ensure fat loss and muscle preservation. So, if you're eating 2000 calories to maintain your weight, a 15% deficit would mean restricting 300 from your diet. Create a further deficit of 200 from daily exercise and you have a total deficit of 500 calories, which will equal 1lb of fat lost per week.

Secondly, make sure the food you eat is nutritionally sound. Your body is an amazing creation and you only have one for life - treat it with respect! Don't waste your calorie intake on empty calories, such as sugar, alcohol and refined carbohydrates. Nourish it with a good range of complex carbohydrates, lean protein, healthy fats, lots of fruit and veggies and plenty of water. Your body will thank you by leaving you feeling revitalised, energised and healthy. You will glow, your skin will be clear, your hair will shine, your eyes will sparkle and you will ooze good health.

I would recommend eliminating processed, convenience and "diet" foods. These offer very little nutritional value to your body and most are often laden with added sugar and salt to make them palatable. Why sit and eat a cardboard frozen lasagne when you can make a delicious one from scratch with nothing nasty added in?

The other thing that I would say is essential to anyone restricting calories is strength training. This stimulates your muscles and encourages them to grow. As you will be restricting calories you won't make any significant gains in size but training them will preserve what muscle mass you have, thus keeping your metabolism ticking over nicely, whilst your body melts away that fat. A good strength routine done 2-3 times per week is plenty and it needn't take more than 45 minutes a time. Remember though, for strength and muscle growth, you need to lift heavy so don't automatically go for the girly 1kg dumbbells, push yourself and work hard. You only need to be completing 8-12 repetitions so choose a weight that allows you to lift that amount and not any more.

What would you rather look like?

Both girls are roughly the same size but their body composition is completely different. The girl on the left clearly has very little muscle mass but a high body fat %, whereas the girl on the right has a lovely "toned" shape with a much lower body fat %.

I know which I'd rather look like!