news story today - 500 calories

[Catrin]

Apparently there has been a study where they put a group of obese people on a 500 calorie diet for a couple of months and found it helped their cardiac health.

Setting aside their comments on the effect of such a restrictive diet on their heart health, how can this be a good idea? 500 calories is pretty darn close to starvation level, and that is without physical effort - OF COURSE they lost weight, who wouldn't? They found that the participants did lose fat around their heart, but what happens once they start eating a normal diet?

[Pax]

How does that not destroy their metabolism??

[Biciclista]

I bet they are extremely obese and were monitored in a hospital. The body is capable of amazing things. but your last sentence what happens after they start on a normal diet... you know what will happen... unless they change their lifestyle.

[pll]

Seems to be this one?
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/res...tes-2011-11-28

The patients had diabetes and very high BMIs. And the sample (15) is tiny...

I think just my breakfast has more than 500 calories, but my BMI is close to the lower bound of normal and I am relatively active.

[Catrin]

At the end of the short report, they said that the participants kept the heart-health benefits even if they gained a "little" weight back (define little). PLL thanks for looking that report it, it has to be the same one.

Hopefully the participants were encouraged to become more active after the study was over and were helped to adopt a more sustainable diet.

[TsPoet]

Years ago someone did a study that showed that starving mice resulted in much longer lives. The mice were extremely calorie restricted and emaciated, but they lived.
The conclusion was, um, er, never mind. (that's my interpretation of the conclusion).

[Catrin]

Years ago someone did a study that showed that starving mice resulted in much longer lives. The mice were extremely calorie restricted and emaciated, but they lived.
The conclusion was, um, er, never mind. (that's my interpretation of the conclusion).

That's right, I remember that now. I also remember a small study of monastics and hermits in Greece who consume very little, and they found an increased lifespan for them as well.