How many times have you heard about a person on an ultra low calorie diet losing a lot of weight, and then gain it all back plus some? I’ll bet you’ve heard (and maybe even experienced) it at least a few times. I’ve actually been a victim of this roller coaster a few times myself.

It just seems to make sense, eat less equates to losing weight, right? Well, you can even take that a little further and think if you eat a whole lot less you’ll lose a whole lot more. It may be true, but I’ve found it to be very unhealthy, very tiring and very temporary.

My experience with ultra low calorie diets dates back to my high school days. Back then, if I felt the need to trop a few pounds, I would begin a torture regiment that consisted of restricting my calorie intake to less than 1000 calories a day.

I always found the experience to be painful and a real energy drain, but I did lose weight. However, after a couple weeks on the diet, I noticed the weight loss would taper off and I ended up basically hitting a brick wall where I just couldn’t lose anymore. I know now that my metabolism was basically slowing down to a crawl as a result of the severe calorie restriction.

After spending a couple months on such a diet plan I did manage to get around my target weight, however I never stayed there. My body was so used to the extreme calorie restriction, so anything extra that I would consume basically turned into fat. Within a year, I’d be up to my old weight plus a few extra pounds.

Since then I’ve steered clear of sever calorie restriction diets and tried to stick with a diet that I can live with indefinitely – more of a lifestyle than a diet.

Karen Larson, Columbus Ohio