A low calorie diet is one that restricts the number of calories a person consumes per day to a very low number. There are several types of diets that provide this to you. If you are looking to lose weight, this diet may or may not be the right choice for you. To decide, you’ll first have to talk with your doctor about the potential health benefits and risk that you, individually, face. Each person has a different set of benefits to be considered here.
A low calorie diet is one that requires a person to consume 1500 to 1800 calories per day. This is rather low from the 2000 to 2400 calories that the average person consumes. A very low calorie diet is much different. This is a very restricting diet for those that are severely obese. It requires that a person only consume a mere 800 calories or less per day. This is very limiting to the person, obviously.
In most cases, you will sign on to a low calorie (especially a very low calorie diet) for a short amount of time. For example, this can only be done for three to six months at the most for those on a very low calorie diet. If it was done longer than this, you can risk some severe complications to your health, including nutritional depletion.
Is this the right diet for you? There are several groups of people that should never be on a very low calorie diet. That includes those that are adolescents and children. In addition, pregnant women and those that are not in optimum health otherwise should not consider it. The average person is able to lose between three and five pounds per week, but this number is significant to those that are obese as they tend to lose weight faster in the beginning.
If you are considering a low calorie diet, especially one that requires less than 1000 calories per day, you should work with your physician on making it happen. Because this diet does require so few calories, you will need to monitor every single calorie that you take for nutritional value. If that calorie is not worth the nutritional needs you have, it can’t be consumed. For those that have the ability and doctor approval, this diet plan can be an ideal choice.