Can a 500 calorie diet be dangerous? When you want to lose weight, do you take risks? If you are one of those people than the 500 calorie diet may be just for you. Taking so few calories is considered an extreme form of dieting but it is very popular. Low calorie diets are common and 500 calories is at the lower end of the scale. Ingesting no more than 1200 calories daily is considered low calorie intake. The idea of taking so little is that you lose weight quickly. If not administered correctly they can be dangerous and as such it is important to plan your 500 calorie diet with a professional dietician or nutritionist before starting. This article will help you to decide if the 500 calorie diet is right for you. The common and well document way to lose weight is to burn more calories that you take in. However a very low calorie diet can actually do more harm than good. When your body is craving more calories (energy) it can affect your metabolic rate. This means your body actually starts to eat away at your muscle mass. It is doing this for the purpose of converting the muscle mass to energy, since there are no food reserves to take from. Because gaining muscle is the path to losing fat, this can have a highly detrimental effect on your body. 500 calories per day may be sufficient for some people depending on their: - Gender - Activity level - Height - Body type - Overall health and well being For other people though, particularly overweight people, consuming only 500 calories a day is almost like starving yourself. Your body is more than likely used to taking in over 2000 calories per day and up to 5000 or more. If you all of a sudden drop to 500 calories or less your body moves into starvation mode. Your metabolism then slows down to conserve energy. While you are on the 500 calorie diet your body will learn to live with fewer calories. That means if you go back to your old high calorie habits (as all too many people do) you will have a sudden gain in weight, which is more than what would have occurred, had you not gone on your low cal diet. The only real way to determine your ideal daily calorie intake is by using a bmr/amr calculator. You will then know how many calories you need to be healthy and to support your lifestyle. If you take 500 calories away from this, then you have the ideal number of calories, to take in per day to help you get your weight down. As men and women are obviously different their ideal calorie intake is also different. This of course means while the average woman may need only 1200 to 1300 calories a day to survive, her male counterpart may need from 1500 to 1600. Again, this is why it is so important for you to consult with your physician before starting any diet. In conclusion, a 500 calorie diet can be dangerous. However, if proper precautions are taken, such as a physical, to determine your overall health fitness, you can lose weight quickly.
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