Starvation Diet

A starvation diet is a highly restrictive method of losing weight that generally involves cutting your daily caloric intake to less than half of what it should be.

People who go on starvation diets are usually trying to lose weight quickly; they may have an event that they want to lose weight for, or a dress that they need to fit into, and though they may see immediate results, those results are generally nothing but water weight, and the weight that they lose will end up coming back very quickly.

The most effective way to lose weight is to change your eating habits, the most effective diet  includes whole grains, high fiber, healthy low-fat vegetables and fruits, and lean protein. Eating several small meals a day actually increases your metabolism and fights hunger and cravings, and will contribute to long term, sustainable weight loss.

Starvation Diet Longevity

Although there has been credible scientific research pointing to positive medical results from maintaining what is referred to as a starvation diet, this is not a diet 4that is designed to help you lose weight as much as it is about restricting your diet every other day in order to create a stress mechanism in the body that fights aging and builds the body’s immunity.

The overall caloric intake for people using this medical starvation diet remains the same, as they are permitted to eat whatever they want on their non-fasting days. A weight-loss oriented starvation diet is designed to help you lose weight quickly, but is not an example of how to diet properly.

Dieting properly is a long-term process that involves changing the way that you eat and increasing the amount of calories you burn; the combination of these two things are what will effect true diet success.

Starvation Diet Calories

The average number of calories that a person who goes onto a starvation diet consumes is between 300 and 700 calories per day. This number is far below what the human body needs to function properly, and the result of cutting calories to that degree can result in extreme headaches, dehydration, and weakness.

When the body sees itself as starving, it burns glucose first, which results in extreme water loss, and though the resulting drop in weight that shows on the scale is extremely gratifying, it is temporary; as soon as the body starts taking in food again, the water weight will return, as the cells need fluid to function.

Although many will tell you that a starvation diet is how to lose weight in a week, all you are actually doing is depriving your body and making it much more likely that you will overeat once your fast is over.

Starvation Diet Results

A starvation diet is not only rarely successful for more than a few days, it also often results in the dieter gaining even more weight than they lost in the course of their highly restrictive, torturous diet.

As is often the case with diets for quick weight loss, starving yourself makes you focus so heavily on what you are not allowing yourself to eat, that as soon as it is over, you tend to binge. Even more importantly, you have not taught yourself anything about eating correctly for the future, and may even have damaged muscle as you have starved your body.

The best way for you to lose weight is to start eating healthy, low-calorie, high density foods that will keep you full and keep your metabolism high. Combining this type of eating with exercise will help you to lose weight even more quickly and effectively; more importantly, it will make you feel better overall.