Category: Obesity
Should you eat just 500 calories in a day?
There are many people who are choosing extremely low calories diet plans to lose weight. They opt for high calorie restricting diets like HCG diet to lose weight quickly. These diet plans require people to consume just 500 calories a day. Health experts are of the view that intake of less than 1,110 calories in a day can cause serious health problems. Even if you are able to survive on this diet for a few days, you cannot survive on these extremely low diet plans for more than 6 weeks.
Effect of Low Calorie Diet on your Health
Some of the problems that are associated with low calorie diet include fatigue, hair loss, gallstone, muscle loss, electrolyte imbalance in the body and bone loss. Women who consume 500 calories a day for a prolonged duration can suffer from menstrual irregularities. Also, pregnant women who restrict the intake to 500 calories a day could be putting the health of their child at risk. Some diet plans that restrict the intake of proteins and sodium can cause phyponatremia which can led to confusion, dizziness, fatigue and even death.
Expert View on Extremely Low Calorie Diet
Most experts are of the view that selecting a diet plan that restrict your calorie intake to about 500 calories will not help you lose weight in the long run. Also, these diet plans can cause long-term health problems which can even led to the death of the person who has adopted this diet plan.
When people adopt these low-calorie diet plans they initially lose weight because they have drastically reduced their consumption of calories. However, the benefits of these plans are not going to last. Also, some of the long-term side effects of adopting these diet plans include irritability, tiredness, electrolyte imbalance, bone and muscle loss.
Another major disadvantage of adopting these diet plans is that it can lead to malnutrition. When you consume food that has less than 500 calories, it can lead to deficiency of nutrients like proteins, minerals and fats. Depriving the body of the essential nutrients can cause malnutrition. Some of the symptoms of malnutrition include weight loss, bone and muscle weakness, dizziness and fatigue.
How much calories should you consume in day?
To find out how many calories you should consume in a day, multiply you ideal weight (in pounds) by 12 to 15. For instance, if you are a 25 year old woman who is very active and you want to maintain a weight of 120 lbs., you must consume about 1800 calories (120 lbs x 15). However, if you lead a less active lifestyle, you must consume 1440 calories (120 lbs x 12).
The food that you eat must be a well-balanced diet and must include items like fruits, low-fat dairy products, vegetables, grains, lean proteins, seeds and nuts.
Overweight mothers likely to have fat babies
Researchers have found that one of the main reasons for childhood obesity is overweight mothers. In a study that was led by Indian born researchers Neena Modi, it was found that some babies have fat built-up in their abdomen that is similar to fat built-up of a 50 year old. Researchers have also found that 33 percent of the babies have more fat built-up than expected.
For the study, Neena and her team took a sample of 105 babies. Of the 105 babies 51 were girls and the remaining were boys. All the babies chosen had more than normal fat in their abdomen. Researchers have found that women who are overweight during pregnancy had higher chances of having babies that have high fat levels especially in their abdomen.
Neena added that she was surprised to detect direct correlation between the weight of the mother and BMI of the baby. She further added that her findings will help in understanding the effect of mothers’ metabolism on the baby.
The study also proves the effect of the surroundings on the baby when it is in the womb. It also helps in understanding the long-term impact of the surrounding on the baby.
According to health experts, new born babes usually have about 700 grams of adipose tissues. However, for every one unit increase of BMI of the baby the adipose tissues can increase by 7 grams which can have an adverse impact on the liver.
