Are Crash Diets Healthy Afterall?

A crash diet is one that includes only enough protein to preserve muscle, and sufficient amounts of essential fatty acids, fiberous vegetables, and a multivitamin, plus lots of water.

The protein requirement will be dictated by the leanness of the person and their exercise regimen, specifically whether or not they are training with weights.

I'm a 6' tall male, at 175 lbs. I have done Lyle McDonald's Rapid Fat Loss diet, on which I ate about 1,100 calories per day. Women doing the Rapid Fat Loss plan will often eat no more than 700 to 800 calories per day.

The key to doing a crash diet, in addition to the dietary requirements above, is reducing the volume of training. This includes avoiding high intensity cardio, and excessive weight training volume and/or frequency. Additionally, the diet is brief. Fatter individuals can do the diet longer but nobody will diet more than 12 weeks without taking a two week break to eat at maintenance. At the other end of the spectrum, very lean individuals will diet no longer than 12 days before taking a 2 week break.

Done intelligently, a crash diet can be highly effective and completely safe.

Give me a break. Yes crash diets work but they are also almost indefinitely temporary. This is not news.

Redefining a crash diet as 1200 calories a day? I think that's a bit mad.

I do not believe in diets.
Well, at least for the vast majority of people with less than - say - 100kg overweight.
Especially I am a convinced opponent of the "Atkins" ideology, as I recommend the normal nutrition with brown bread, fruits and vegetables; and if you want to loose weight, cut your daily input a little bit.
But in some points, Atkins was right, e.g.: A diet is not a game that you play for awhile, and then you go on binging as before. No, you must find a way of eating with that you can live your whole life.
A crash diet however is normally based on the "game" mentality.

So, if we redefine the term "crash diet" to mean "low but healthy," then crash diets are healthy! Who'dathunk it?

This kind of thinking is not productive - one researcher changing their definition will NOT change the way it is used colloquially. All that will happen is teenage girls (or whoever else) will hear "crash diets are healthy" and never notice those devilish details.

The part that stuck out to me was the part about people doing better on crash diets than they do on a more moderate plan. My mom's a pro at crash dieting...she always does really, really well when she goes on any plan where you either don't eat real meals and just drink shakes instead or plans where you get regimented small quantities of food. She loses the weight very quickly and gets excited about it, but when she gets down to a goal weight, she goes back to eating the way she used to eat and she gains all the weight back again. So, from my experience, crash diets don't work for long-term weight loss.

In my own personal experience, I've never really done a crash diet, but when I went to Mexico for a week, I ate a lot less food and worked out quite a bit less and ended up losing a good 4-5 lbs while I was there. I gained it back when I started eating my normal diet again, which was good because I didn't really have 5 lbs to lose to begin with.

I've been losing 1 pound a day for 65 days on 1500 calories a day. I don't consider it a crash diet. My body is responding to a healthy diet and excercise routine the way it wants to. Yet the crash diet nazi's have left me mean spirted comments and email.

If you are being healthy who cares if your weight crashes. We should not fight our bodies.

I tried the slow is wonderful way and I was not possible for me. If it is good for you - great.

cheers

am with your last 3 sentences. Get rid of emotional stuff, IT IS highly individual and the best one is one you can live with for life! I knew people that went on the quick fix stuff & gained it all back & more because the mindset was lose it, get to the goal but they never learned to change the lifestyle for long term.

I know people do great on lower carb diets, but this is where the individual thing comes in... me, even though I eat more protein than most women my age, I still like my carbs, I find ways to eat all the whole grain bread I want & I don't want to live without that...so, find something you can do as a lifestyle & go for that.

The quick weight loss stuff is not sustainable so a person has to prepare for "the after" if that is their plan of attack.

I'm not sure if there is actually a finite definition of a crash diet. In theory it could be anything that is extremely sudden, significantly strict, and a notable change from the person's current eating habits. The desired outcome being, of course, to lose weight.

I'd like to see exactly what the participants of the study were eating (breakdown of fats, protein, carbs), and what sort of foods were cut out when cutting 10 or 30% calories. Calories can be pretty irrelevant depending on food quality and food function once inside the body. I know I've seen people continually gain weight on a low-cal diet when it's not ideal food!

The biggest problem with weight loss is not losing the weight, but keeping it off. How do you prevent recidivism? The only way is to gradually change eating habits so that healthier eating patterns are learned for the long term.

I cannot function on 1,200 calories a day! I guess everyone's different, but I've never understood why I need to eat at least 1,900 calories most days (sometimes up to 2,200 or more) and lose a pound a week, and other people can handle 1,200? I've TRIED 1,200 - I lost three pounds a week (too fast, I now think) and got progressively more grouchy and weak until I eventually gave up and gained it all back. For me 1,200 calories would be a crash diet.

Crash diet sounds new word, can any one of you guide me more info about this Crash Diet?

Crash diets do work! However often because the dieter has not changed their mind set about how they eat, what they eat and the quantities they eat, then invariably they put the weight back on with interest.
What is required is a mind set change encompassing the above. Healthy eating should be a life long commitment along with regular exercise. The word Diet has become synonymous with losing weight. More accurately it is all the food that we eat all the time.

im 15 and at the begining of the summer (june 1st) i started at 6"0 187 pounds now being into august of the same years im at 6"1 160 pounds i slept in to got 7-9 hours of sleep weight lifted 5 days a week and ran even more than that heavy cardio stuff this is what i ate

2 somtimes 3 peices of peanut butter toast around lunch or after wieght lifting (it starts at 8am and goes to about 9:30)

some fruit ocasionally during the afternoon

and a normal size dinner