crash diet

[ProteinTreasure]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Have you ever been on any crash diet or weight-loss plan (such as Atkins') while attending MD school? And how did you feel? Did the diet affect your studying? Which diet plan works best for you?

 

[beethoven]

"crash diets" generally don't work since you will put the weight back on as soon as you stop the crash diet. The ideal way to lose weight is to eat 500 kcal less per day and this will lead to around 0.5 kg weight loss per week. Also, exercise will help in the process. It doesn't really matter what KIND of diet you follow, all that matters is your energy intake compared to how much energy you are outputting (through exercise, etc.)

 

[Kickback]

It doesn't really matter what KIND of diet you follow, all that matters is your energy intake compared to how much energy you are outputting (through exercise, etc.)

👍

Although not the same experience as medical school, during highschool I wrestled and needed to lose a bunch of weight to get to the weight class my coach wanted me at (and the weight I should have been at). I ate around 1000 calories a day while doing 3-hour practices 6 days a week. Needless to say, it worked, as I lost 10 lbs in 2 weeks and got down to 165 by the end of the season from 190, but it drains you SO much. I could hardly motivate myself to do any school work, and I was ridiculously tired a lot of the time.

I popped up to 175 literally a month after the end of the season. I lost all motivation to work out after being ridden like a mule for 3+ months. Any "crash-diet" wears you out.

 

[ChiDO]

Below you will find the best kept secret in dieting!

Amount of calories burned > Amount of calories consumed.


OMG...don't tell anyone! This is a trade secret!

 

[TMP-SMX]

Long term, diets don't work. It's not a secret. The only way to lose weight and keep it off is maintaining a change in lifestyle including eating healthier foods/less food and exercise.

 

[Cp22kjer]

👍

Although not the same experience as medical school, during highschool I wrestled and needed to lose a bunch of weight to get to the weight class my coach wanted me at (and the weight I should have been at). I ate around 1000 calories a day while doing 3-hour practices 6 days a week. Needless to say, it worked, as I lost 10 lbs in 2 weeks and got down to 165 by the end of the season from 190, but it drains you SO much. I could hardly motivate myself to do any school work, and I was ridiculously tired a lot of the time.

I popped up to 175 literally a month after the end of the season. I lost all motivation to work out after being ridden like a mule for 3+ months. Any "crash-diet" wears you out.

I feel your pain. Weighed in at 182 senior year and was wrestling at 152 by mid season. Crash dieting is NOT the way to go. I would put on 8-10lbs the day after weigh in. I'm so glad those days are gone.......

 

[Cp22kjer]

Long term, diets don't work. It's not a secret. The only way to lose weight and keep it off is maintaining a change in lifestyle including eating healthier foods/less food and exercise.

I agree. Its seriously as simple (or complex) as that. Statistically diets usually fail.

 

[alwaysaangel]

Have you ever been on any crash diet or weight-loss plan (such as Atkins') while attending MD school? And how did you feel? Did the diet affect your studying? Which diet plan works best for you?

Yeah a crash diet isn't going to do you any good but a diet will.

I've been dieting for 2 months (although a few weeks I totally failed). And my focus has been on reducing calories. Basically I'd gotten really lazy and was eating out a ton for most of 2nd year and I gained about 3 inches on my waist and lost a ton of muscle mass.

So I started with a slimfast diet: slimfast for breakfast, slimfast + small omelet for lunch and a small well rounded dinner. I also had 3 snacks between meals that were mostly fruit, veggies or popcorn. I cut out all soda/drinks other than water.

When I first started I had some serious moodswings (basically without my carbs I got really depressed) and was a little tired. I love carbs and am used to a very carb heavy diet so the sudden change was a bad idea I should have eased into it more.

After 3 weeks or so I got into a better rhythm. Only had slimfast for breakfast, salad or omelet, etc for lunch, and a small dinner plus all the snacks. Plus I started doing 30min on the eliptical every day, a 20 min ab work out and a 12 min intervals workout.

Since I adjusted it to this I've been consistently losing about 1lb a week, but I've been losing .5 inch/week which is 2lbs of fat. So I'm definitely gaining muscle and losing fat. I haven't had any problems with energy or mood swings or focusing to study. And I've lost 5 lbs and 2.5 inches on my waist. (keep in mind I'm not exactly heavy so my weightloss goals weren't that big - I'm already more than halfway to what I wanted)

Overall I think you just need to ease into it. Make some concrete goals and pick a diet that is realistic for you. If you love carbs its probably not a good idea to try atkins - you'd be better off just cutting out a few things (soda/juice etc. does wonders) or making a point to choose veggies a couple times a day instead of carby stuff. Also, definitely add some sort of workout, thats really essential because you can eat more and exercising will actually increase your energy levels.

Also, as others have said you need to not think of it so much as a diet as you do a lifestyle change. You can't go back to all your old habits once you hit the weight you want. I chose to do most of my dieting while prepping for boards because I can't cook anyway so its easy to eat mostly slimfast, soup, lean cuisines, eggs, etc. But once I hit the weight I want I'm going to have to keep doing it to a point. I will have to still count calories and make sure I am even or at a deficit, I will still workout several times a week, and I will still try to eat out minimally. It will be easier than what I'm doing now but it will still require conscious effort until I've done it long enough that its second nature.

 

[Perrotfish]

I've done Atkins. It's not really a crash diet, or at least I don't count it as a crash diet if I like the meals and don't feel hungry. I feel just fine doing it, grades haven't gotten any worse and I've lost a good bit of weight. If you're interested I strongly recommend reading the book cover to cover before starting.

I've also tried nutrisystems in Ugrad. It worked, but I was hungry all the time and generally felt miserable. I lasted a month and more or less immediatly gained back everything I lost.

Finally, I recommend reading through the book 'mindless eating' before anything else. It will help whatever diet you're on.

 

[MilkmanAl]

On a loosely related note, does anyone else find it absolutely hilarious that Alli advertises itself as "the ony weight loss drug that lets you know when you're not following your diet?" Perhaps it could let you know in a slightly more subtle way.

Seriously, though, I know a few people who took Xenical (before Alli was out) and had great results.

 

[Orthodoc40]

After reading Atkins cover to cover I tried it and lasted about 10 days. Unlike others I spoke to that claimed to feel great on it, I was miserable, depressed, and exhausted! Plus I didn't lose a pound. My feeling is, if I'm losing weight, some misery is justifiable... but this wasn't.

 

[Cp22kjer]

After reading Atkins cover to cover I tried it and lasted about 10 days. Unlike others I spoke to that claimed to feel great on it, I was miserable, depressed, and exhausted! Plus I didn't lose a pound. My feeling is, if I'm losing weight, some misery is justifiable... but this wasn't.

Didn't he die from heart disease?

 

[jake2]

Didn't he die from heart disease?

He died from head trauma after a fall. The heart disease thing is an urban myth that people want to be true for ironic value.

 

[87138]

Didn't he die from heart disease?

Don't most people?

 

[amberliu]

So i am right now trying something where i don't eat after 4pm for 3-4 days a week combined with going to the gym late at night. it seems to work for me. i want to maintain this through the summer.

 

[nogolfinsnow]

Yeah a crash diet isn't going to do you any good but a diet will.


Overall I think you just need to ease into it. Make some concrete goals and pick a diet that is realistic for you. If you love carbs its probably not a good idea to try atkins - you'd be better off just cutting out a few things (soda/juice etc. does wonders) or making a point to choose veggies a couple times a day instead of carby stuff. Also, definitely add some sort of workout, thats really essential because you can eat more and exercising will actually increase your energy levels.

This part can't be emphasized enough. You have to set goals you can actually achieve. Recognize that you won't reach your goals in 3 weeks, but that you can recognize them in a year or two and maintain your new weight for the rest of your life. Make small changes to both your diet and exercise patterns, and when they become routine, add more small changes on top of those. Good luck!

 

[beethoven]

Didn't he die from heart disease?

No, that's just a myth. He hit his head on an icy sidewalk and died from head trauma.

In fact, it has been shown that his diet can actually IMPROVE your HDL/LDL/TG. A quick search on PubMed shows many studies done that confirm this.

He died from head trauma after a fall. The heart disease thing is an urban myth that people want to be true for ironic value.

Agreed. Also, it's something people on low-fat diets say. Coming back to what I said about Pubmed above --- it has also been shown that in the short term the Atkins diet is superior, but in the long term if you do Atkins you're no better off than if you do any other commercially available diet. It's all about energy in vs. energy out!

 

[MilkmanAl]

Wouldn't your liver sort of hate you if you did the Atkins diet long-term?

 

[beethoven]

Wouldn't your liver sort of hate you if you did the Atkins diet long-term?

probably

 

[TMP-SMX]

Your brain would probably be unhappy too. The liver says screw you to the brain and RBCs when they ask for glucose. It says numbnuts here is only eating protein and fat when we should be eating more carbs since they are so much simpler to digest and excrete since CO2 and H20 are the end products. Carbs don't turn into organic acids that the kidney has to excrete. O yeah speaking of, the kidney gets pissed too.

 

[Cp22kjer]

He died from head trauma after a fall. The heart disease thing is an urban myth that people want to be true for ironic value.

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[sprinkibrio]

Crash diets probably don't work for most people, but for the hypercontrolling medical student personality they work like a charm. You people are nuts! 120 lb loss with 50 lb loss during the first two years of med school was done by a friend on South Beach. Still fine. Now on vegetarian diet. Similar situation with dad. I'm not going to get in an arguement about that... but keep in mind that it's possible to do this and get great grades... just drink a lot of coffee. 🙂 And keep in mind that although you might get gall stones, a crash diet + change in lifestyle will add more years to your life than a gall bladder ever could.

 

[Perrotfish]

Your brain would probably be unhappy too. The liver says screw you to the brain and RBCs when they ask for glucose. It says numbnuts here is only eating protein and fat when we should be eating more carbs since they are so much simpler to digest and excrete since CO2 and H20 are the end products. Carbs don't turn into organic acids that the kidney has to excrete. O yeah speaking of, the kidney gets pissed too

As always, the best way to present your unproven (or in this case, repeatedly disproven) idea as a fact is through the strategic incorperation of the word 'numbnuts'.

 

[free09]

Honestly I think you would need more carbs than are provided by the Atkins diet in medical school. Your brain will be expending a lot of glucose in med school, and eating carbs is the most direct way of obtaining it. Also carbs are important for serotonin, and we can all use a bit of that 🙂

For dieting, the key is to space out your carb intake so you aren't having insulin surges and the resultant fat storage/metabolic dysfunction. Basically when you're doing a diet think of le chatelier's principle; if you put too much stress on your system at once (dieting) your body will try to oppose the stress by becoming more stingy with energy. so adjust your personal 'equilibrium' (ie. body weight) gradually and you should be successful.

 

[MilkmanAl]

As always, the best way to present your unproven (or in this case, repeatedly disproven) idea as a fact is through the strategic incorperation of the word 'numbnuts'.

Maybe I should read Atkins's book(s?). His diet never made any sense to me when I had some basic nutrition, fitness, and physiology knowledge, and it makes even less sense to me now. Wouldn't you get ketotic in a hurry once you've used your glucose stores? Won't your liver stress out from all the nitrogen and fat processing? Won't your brain be malnourished from not having any carbs? Won't you be at an energy deficit - particularly during exercise - since you don't have your prime energy source available? It's all very confusing.

 

[Perrotfish]

Maybe I should read Atkins's book(s?). His diet never made any sense to me when I had some basic nutrition, fitness, and physiology knowledge, and it makes even less sense to me now. Wouldn't you get ketotic in a hurry once you've used your glucose stores? Won't your liver stress out from all the nitrogen and fat processing? Won't your brain be malnourished from not having any carbs? Won't you be at an energy deficit - particularly during exercise - since you don't have your prime energy source available? It's all very confusing.

The liver, kidney, and brain problems were all legitimate concerns. When the diet started a lot of physicians were worried that patients on the diet would damage all three and would be acidotic on top of that. Short answer, it was studied pretty extensively, and what they discovered was that the only real risks were to patients who had existing kidney problems (proteinurea). Otherwise no liver damage (even in patients with existing liver damage), no kidney damage in healthy kidneys, no noticible cognitive impairment (a malnorished brain isn't that easy to hide), and no acidosis.

The theoretical physio of this, as far as I can tell, is based around 3 basic ideas:

1) Hormones: This is really the main thing. A very low carb intake decreases your postprandial insulin/glucagon ratio, which means a greater percentage of the calories you ultimately burn come from ketosis, and your metabolism is higher for a greater percentage of the day.

2) Calorie restriction: The combination of CCK release and the generally slow digestion of fats means you fill up faster on protein. Everyone's gone through a whole bag of chips by accident, very few people have accidentally gone through half a dozen steaks. Higher staity = lower caories.

3) Ketosis is inefficient: I THINK this is what he meant. On an extremely low carb diet, your body adapts so that just about everything, even most of your nervous system, runs on keto acids. The trick is that the uptake of ketone bodies is not 100% efficient, unlike glucose. A healthy person on a normal calorie and carb reabsorbs essentially 100% of their sugar, but a healthy person on the Atkins diet pisses and poops out a significant percentage of their metabolism.

So: Higher metabolism, a greater percentage of calories from fat as opposed to muscle, higer staity, and you poop a few excess calories out. At least it seems to make sense, with my limited knowledge of nutrition.

For dieting, the key is to space out your carb intake so you aren't having insulin surges and the resultant fat storage/metabolic dysfunction

Actually I think it's the opposite. This method would lead to a high insulin level throughout the day. You're ALWAYS going to get an insulin surge after meals, this method just means more surges. This is one of the theories as to heavy users of diet coke seem to have problems losing weight. I'd say try to restrict carbs to meals, and have pure protien snacks (which you do want, to keep up your basal metabolism)

 

[TMP-SMX]

As always, the best way to present your unproven (or in this case, repeatedly disproven) idea as a fact is through the strategic incorperation of the word 'numbnuts'.

It was more of a joke. I still don't believe the Atkins diet is viable for most people due to expense and monotony. I wouldn't want to eat high protein and low carb meals all the time. How much of the weight loss is due to boredom of having to stuff yourself of protein and fats at every meal and you eat less? I don't think any one diet works. This is why you should take the good parts of all of the "diets" and just eat a healthy well-balanced diet where calories out are greater than calories in. The Atkins diet showcases the importance of reducing refined carbs which is one of the cornerstones of eating healthier whole grains and complex carbohydrates that are not going to have an extremely high glycemic index. Anyway, I think Atkins is an interesting concept and shows how varied our diet can become as long as we get the necessary vitamins. Would be interesting to see the rates of kidney disease and gout in individuals on the diet long term.