How to diet with

VLCD

Although they are currently fashionable, there is nothing new about today's very low calorie/kilojoule diets (VLCD) such as the Cambridge diet and Univite diet.

They are simply another variation on semi-fasting regimes and crash diets.

Learning how to diet with vlcd is simplified because the dieter simply buys their vlcd food from suppliers

VLCD have long been popular because of their ability to induce rapid weight reduction.

But now they are put across with all the hype of modern marketing techniques.

Yet there is one little difference: the various manufacturers claim that these diets, in spite of their low calorific value, are far safer because they contain all the nutrients necessary for good health.

Certainly the number of satisfied in apparently healthy, slimmers who have lost weight on VLCDs testifies to their sucess as well as their safety.

While eating nothing but grapefruit and eggs may cause you to lose as much weight in a fortnight as say the Cambridge diet, you will probably derive better nutrition, and, say the manufacturers, feel healthy and more energetic, if you opting for the “all in” VLCD.

They also claimed that one of the main reasons slimmers give up stringent diet is because these offer insufficiently high level of all-round nutrition leading to tiredness, irritability, lack of energy, dizziness and other typical slimmers complaints.

VLCDs have been widely use with excellent results in obesity clinics attached a major hospitals throughout the country. Stringent dieting and the medical supervision is one thing, doing it alone is quite another. Some doctors therefore, expressed concern that staying on a VLCD for too long can lead to excessive loss of lean body tissue.

This may harm the vital organs, including the heart, with the risk of severe illness or even death. Manufacturers of VLCDs stress, therefore, that no one should embark on such a diet without first consulting their doctor, and the long periods of taking low calorie/kilojoule meal replacements as the sole source of nutrition must be interrupted regularly by the intake of more calories/kilojoules and reintroduction of a more balanced diet.

Sensationalist reports of deaths caused by following VLCD diets are needlessly alarmist. They are due to misleading or incomplete information about the modern VLCD.
In the 1970s the infamous liquid protein diets, allegedly to blame for a number of deaths, were in fact composed of collagen, and inferior grade protein.

They contained insufficient essential nutrients, such as selenium to maintain the necessary electrolytic balanced and regulate heart function. Although number of people in America are reported to have died on the Cambridge diet (not the same formula as the British Cambridge diet) the American FDA has never positively attributed these deaths to the diet. There is some evidence that drug and alcohol abuse, and existing ill-health, may have been predisposing factors.

Another area of concern is the relative protein value ofVLCDs. Adequate intake of protein is essential for the regular maintenance and repair of vital body organs. So how much protein do we need to stay healthy?.

The world health organisation says 1.5 ounces (37 g) a day. The Cambridge diet provides 1.2 ounces (33 g), UNIVITE 1.55 ounces (42 g). UNIVITE also advises anyone worried about adequate protein intake to a head just 1 ounce (25 g) of powdered skim milk to the liquid meals or coffee, to boost protein levels by another .3 of an ounce (9 g) without affecting the rate of weight loss.

The rate of weight loss could be as fast as 10 lbs in 10 days if the strict regime is stuck to.