Low calorie diet is not only effective in treating obesity but also maintaining a healthy balance. A low calorie diet can comprise of 1000 to 1800 calories per day. With the help of this diet, one can manage his weight. The expert health practitioners and doctors recommend the healthy diet depending on individualized needs to meet the weight-loss goals. In a standard adult body weight, the daily protein intake should be around 0.8gm per kg of standard body weight. If the diet doesn't consist of 1200 calories, vitamin supplements may become necessary.

Expert medical practitioners or dieticians recommend the low calorie diet depending on patient's eating behavior, preparation of food, meal prototype, usual food share capability, nutritional sufficiency, exercise and other relevant factors. With a satisfactory output by analyzing the above factors, doctors then recommend individual program for attaining and maintaining ideal weight.

Feeling hungry is too common among individuals on low calorie diet. To fulfill this need, patients are recommended to satisfy their appetite with low calorie foods such as raw vegetables, broth, black tea or coffee or any other sugar free beverages. If the patient is not suffering from any sort of cardiac problem or edema, doctors usually do not recommend sodium restricted diet.

Effectiveness of Very Low Calorie Diet

VLCD or very low calorie diet is generally recommended to severely obese people for the purpose of short term weight loss. It is also effective for moderately obese individuals. VLCD allows an average weight loss of 3 to 5 pounds per week. Not only weight loss, but VLCD also aids in alleviating a whole host of medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. VLCD is simply great for short term weight loss, however, modest dietary restrictions intended for long term benefits are found to be more effective than that of VLCD.

A combination of VLCD with exercise and cognitive-behavioral therapy can offer a long term weight loss benefit. The cognitive-behavioral therapy helps in recognizing the cause of the problem and guides for corresponding moderation in eating behavior pattern.

How safe is Very Low Calorie Diet?

VLCD is not suitable for everyone. If you are suffering from obesity and the BMI or Body Mass Index is greater than 30, you may be supervised with VLCD under proper medical condition. However, BMI less than 30 may not be recommended for VLCD unless prevalent medical conditions occurred due to obesity problem.

VLCD is recommended by the doctor precisely on case-by-case basis. Only receiving proper medical guidance from your doctor, you can switch to very low calorie diet. You cannot depend on VLCD if you are pregnant or if you practice breastfeeding. Typically, it is not recommended to the growing age, children and adolescents, expect they do not belong to any specialized treatment plan. This diet is also not suitable for people over 50 years of age due to several age-related factors such as preexisting medicinal conditions, possible side-effects, etc.

Side Effects of Very Low Calorie Diet

Typically, minor side effects such as diarrhea, constipation, fatigue and nausea are reported from individuals on VLCD for 4-6weeks. These complications are indeed short-term and people can improve health conditions rapidly. These problems generally do not prevent individuals in finishing the diet program successfully.

However, there are serious side effects involved with VLCD as well. The most serious among all is gallstone formation. During rapid weight loss, it is common to see developing gallstone, especially in the case of obese women. It is assumed that the rapid weight loss slows down the gallbladder's ability for bile contraction. Although, it is a serious health complication, but no research has yet confirmed whether VLCD is directly responsible for the occurrence of gallstone or the amount of rapid weight loss causes the problem.

To maintain good health, a proper balance of food from different food groups is needed. Getting good nutrition is difficult in as few as 800 calories and it becomes fatal if someone only depends on such diet day after day.

Truly speaking, whenever you come out from the low calorie diet, you have every possibility to regain weight if you do not maintain healthy eating practice, physical exercise, along with an improved outlook towards your eating pattern.