Quote Originally Posted by catnapper View Post
As for the 800 calories, people WILL lose weight that way, but be utterly miserable while doing it and then gain it all back as soon as they return to eating their old way.
Nappers- I am not picking on you, but this is one of those things that gets to me ( lol, one of many). :/

A pound is 3500 calories. Those can be fat ladened, or low fat calories, 3500 calories from grapes will cause you to gain a pound the exact same way 3500 pounds of Funions will cause you to gain a pound. If one eats 3500 more calories of anything that is beyond what they need to fuel the body or service the body's needs, one will gain a pound.

Same thing with reducing your caloric intake. If one reduces their caloric intake (presumably over days since most of us do not need 3500 cals a day to maintain a -0-), one will lose weight. And, not gain it back unless that person again exceeds their caloric intake by 3500 calories. So, if one goes on a 800 calorie day 'diet', and loses ten pounds over the course of a month, and then begins eating 'normal' again (by what the body needs/expends) one will not gain weight back. If, one exceeds the body's need for food daily, then yes, one will gain that weight back. The same way one would if one maintained a 1200/1500 a day diet, and lost the weight over 6 months.

The reason it is suggested that one lose weight slowly is to help set up healthy habits. One can lose weight quickly, and keep it off. But, one has to make sure one doesn't go back to eating a bag of Funions a day. And, water weight loss isn't a true weight loss. No matter what I am doing, I try to drink half my body weight in ounces. That is a lot of water. LOL. One reason alone to lose weight...stop the dern potty runs!

1200 calories, depending on body size, doesn't seem like too little food to me. Losing weight is hard work. We eat for fifty million reasons besides hunger. To me, and for me, a 30 day intense 'diet' (lol, call it a life style change if it makes you feel better...), in which I lose 12-15 pounds is much easier for me than a one year long process.

Everyone is different, and while I am a doctor, it ain't medicine I practice. I do know that weight loss isn't rocket science, although we women tend to make it out to be. But, it is surely really, really hard. That is cause we aren't eating merely to fill our stomachs.