The Food Philosophy will show you how to lose weight, feel genuine choice and control around food and set yourself free from overeating for the rest of your life.
This week's blog entry is in the style of a classic magazine angony aunt Q&A.
Dear Sue
I’ve just started my first week on a VLCD (very low calorie diet). I’ve already lost five pounds in just four days and I’m so excited. I am starting to feel a bit dizzy and sick, though, but my counsellor tells me that this will wear off. I can put up with that and the terrible cravings for food because the payoff is so good, but the thing I’m most worried about is that one of the side effects is hair loss. My counsellor reassures me that this is temporary as well. My hair is my best asset and I don’t want to lose it – even temporarily. I’m terrified that I’ll end up thin but bald! Is there anything I can do to stop my hair falling out?
Debbie, 23, Manchester
The problem with VLCDs is that people believe the advertising and sales talk of the companies that sell them, as you have. Obviously this is going to be heavily biased towards playing up their ‘advantages’ and playing down (sometimes even hiding) their disadvantages. Embarking on a VLCD is a very serious medical decision to that requires much thought and a full understanding of what you are actually doing – most people don’t find out enough to make a truly informed decision. Would you say you’re fully informed?
It only takes a little research to get a more real picture than the manufacturers give you. For example, the diets allow you to consume a much smaller number of calories than a normal diet because the ‘meal replacements’ give you your recommended daily vitamins and minerals. That might sound good but there is actually no evidence that chemically manufactured vitamins do the job they are supposed to do. Recent trials have shown that they actually shorten your life. Because no one knows whether these vitamins are absorbed and processed by our bodies or not, you could decide to take the risk, but if you look at a list of the side effects of VLCDs and compare them to the side effects of malnutrition, the list is remarkably similar.
Also, before you choose to begin a VLCD you should phone the company and ask them for their long-term success rates – you will find that they don’t have any. This is because there aren’t any. VLCDs are not only a temporary measure but you’re very likely to end up more overweight than you were when you started. They set you up for more severe compulsive overeating problems than you had when you started and your body will be more physically damaged than when you started.
The people who go on these diets tend to get into a compulsive yo-yo dieting cycle, motivated by their first fast, big weight loss (which of course is all gained back). I can predict your future if you stay on this diet. You will lose weight, gain it back, lose weight, gain it back and then keep on trying and failing and trying and failing, with shorter and shorter periods of weight loss and longer periods of weight gain until you can no longer face it and then you will give up. Meanwhile the damage that is done to you will have become less and less repairable.
So my advice would be make sure you are very aware of the consequences and fully educated about what you’re doing. Basically, if you’re looking for one or two periods of fast very temporary weight loss, ultimate very fast more permanent weight gain, coupled with unpleasant side effects and the chance of long-term physical and psychological damage as well as a few years off your life, then go for it, VLCDs are perfect.
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