I think it's worth getting into the pros and cons of vlcd's, because by the looks of it that's what you've got yourself into.
I must admit, for a number of reasons I've always used and had success with very low calorie diets. That being said, it's not something I would recommend to anyone unless they fully understood what they were getting into, and thought there was no other way for them to achieve their goals.
I'll start with the pros, and bare in mind every single one of these on both sides I've experienced first hand -
+ Very quick weight loss, hugely beneficial for motivation.
+ After a week or two you stop feeling hunger, which obviously helps when on a diet.
+ Easy to keep track of.
+ Makes very little difference if you 'treat' yourself, since you're already on very few calories.
Now for the cons, and I would say for the majority of people these are
far more important than anything listed above -
- Don't for a second believe that every bit of that 3lb a week you're losing is fat. A relatively large percentage of what you lose will be muscle, lose 4-5 stone upwards and you will look like you're best friends with a crack pipe by the time the fat is gone.
- Your blood pressure will plummet, which can lead to dizzy spells, extreme fatigue/tiredness, even blackouts, all of which I experienced.
- If you're more than a stone or two overweight, your skin had to stretch over time to accommodate that weight. Just the same, it will have to stretch back to fit your new smaller frame. Lose weight too quick and it will not be able to keep up, leaving you with saggy areas even after every ounce of fat is gone. Depending on how big you are to start with, this could be permanent.
- Try telling yourself it's normal to have sometimes 4 or 5 days between taking a dump, it's not possible
.
- Back to the not feeling hungry part, this is your body going into starvation mode, it essentially stops feeling hungry after a point because it has come to expect not being fed. Many will say one aspect of this is eventually the weight loss will stop no matter how few calories you have, I personally did not experience this, though it's reasonable to assume many of the other consequences I did.
Those are the main ones off the top of my head, and while the pro list wouldn't get much bigger, there's plenty of other reasons that could be added to the cons list. Vlcd's are not necessary in almost all cases, and anyone that does decide to do it should make that decision knowing that they are putting short term weight loss above many negative health factors.
