Low Fat and Very Low Calorie Diets
I have had some concerns regarding VLCD's for some time now, starting with concern regarding a shake plan that is very popular here in Australia called the Tony Ferguson Diet and now an online plan based in the US that I feel is much worse called Kimkins. We have a couple of threads that go into them briefly with links to more information: Kimkins Diet and The Tony Ferguson Diet
I also have posted about this more on my blog with various posts on kimkins as well as one on Tony Ferguson.
Body fat doesn't replace all the benefits of eating fat nor does it help to empty your gall bladder. In fact,
eating so low in fats can be dangerous and there is a good chance you will cause problems with your gall bladder. To make matters worse, I have seen plenty of people eating this way whom are already slim, not everyone doing one of the 5 Kimkins plans are over weight or obese.
I really feel if someone wishes to do this then they really should research it first and seek medical advice by someone not just any doctor but a doctor experienced in this. I also feel that the authors of such diet plans should make the risks involved very clear. From my understanding, the Tony Ferguson diet is moving away from VLCD and more towards LCD. However, people on this diet can still easily eat calories at a VLCD level without realising it and their plan is still very low fat. Kimkins on the other hand seems to openly encourage less and less. For those that question this I have gone into how the Tony Ferguson diet can be very low calorie in various posts in the Tony Ferguson Diet thread and for the kimkins followers I put up a blog post recently The low fat side of the Kimkins Diet, Part 1
One thing I have seen from my research on kimkins is that people seem to be under the belief that body fat stores supply everything they need. This is something Kimmer states over and over to support her diet and encourage very low levels of calories and it is not true. Body fat does not supply all the vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and protein that you need. It supplies calories, hormones, toxins and possibly some fat soluble vitamins (?) but on top of that it bypasses the digestive system which is where the nutrition is first needed. Body fat cannot replace the fat you need to eat. Not only that, our bodies are smart, they want to preserve body fat not burn it all off willy nilly, after all its about surviving as long as you can. When our body detects that it is in a calorie deficit, it slows itself down to try and match the new amount of energy coming in. Having body fat does not prevent this and its my impression from my research that possibly the more rapid you lose the more strongly your bodies survival instincts kick into gear. Another thing is that not only does your body try to slow your metabolism down but it starts to want to store fat even more. This is not something we want, think of it this way, do you really want to be left only being able to eat bugger all for the rest of your life? And then, if you start to gain weight back, what is left to cut out in order to lose the weight again?
Of course these are only 2 of the many very low fat, very low calorie diets out there. However, very low calorie diets, otherwise known as VLCD's are typically strictly medically supervised as they should be. They are not meant for people whom aren't obese, they are generally only meant as a last resort and they certainly shouldn't be made up and handed out like candy over the internet, by some anonymous John Doe whom has no professional expertise in this area, let alone charge people money for it.
For these reasons, I thought it would be good to look into some of the risks involved. The article I was writing is quite long so I thought I should break it up. The next one is about the risks of gallstones on low fat diets which is then followed by one that goes into the effects on metabolic rate, lean proteins, rabbit starvation, sudden deaths and muscle mass. Later, I may put up a page on the nutritional side of a diet lacking in fats.
I should also mention for those interested that I am working on a page listing the various research on some of the risks of VLCD Diets: Research on Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD) Risks plus I have also put up a page on BMR and calories to help people work out a safer level to eat at alongside a thread that discusses how to raise calories when coming off a very low calorie diet such as kimkins.
Low Fat and Very Low Calorie Diets: Gallstones
Low Fat and Very Low Calorie Diets: Rabbit Starvation, Sudden Death and Resting Metabolism.
Back to Low Carbohydrate Resources