We have all heard of the questionable behavior of people towards "detainees" at Guantanamo Bay. Water-boarding, certainly, is torture. How could it not be? I almost suffocated just watching footage of it, I cannot imagine actually being put through it.
Documents written under the Bush Administration justified restricting calories of Gitmo inmates to 1,000 per day, basing it on the fact that Americans voluntarily do it everyday, using fad diets, ultra restrictive diets and other methods of losing weight that apply various restrictive measures.
An interesting comparison, yes?
Millions of Americans adopt severely restrictive diets every day. Some only allowing 800 or 900 calories a day. My little children eat that! Others outright ban certain foods that have me scratching my head. Absolutely no fruit, or absolutely no breads (not even whole or multi-grain) and make a person feel like if they go near a cup of coffee or glass of wine, the diet will collapse around their ears and they'll be back to square one again.
This kind of pressure absolutely guarantees failure. I don't know anyone who eats an apple (fruit) a day and gains weight. Or someone who eats a banana or has a morning cup of coffee and gains weight. Not to the extent that merits such dire warning from these fad diets.
An 800 calorie a day diet for an adult pretty much guarantees a weight gain if the person even adds two hundred more calories (a couple of apples) to their diet, without adding on plenty of exercise to circumvent the 'damage' those awful apples did.
Many years ago I adopted a well known diet program in Europe and consumed 400 calories per day. I nearly went insane. Now I eat whatever I like (mostly healthy and in moderation) and exercise and have no weight issues at all. I can attest to these kinds of diets being 'torture'. I adopted a healthy lifestyle and exercise, took the word "diet" out of my vocabulary and didn't beat myself up if I ate chocolate. And I feel great!
People on these kinds of diets obsess over them. It's the nature of the beast. I know I did. It consumed me, for the short time I stuck it out and I wasn't even over-weight, I had a skewered notion of what a healthy weight was. The obsession is not a good one - it's based on an unhealthy focus on food and numbers and counting - and the stress levels are high. And heaven forbid a person breaks down and eats something not on the "approved" list. The feelings of guilt are huge. Is this torture? Sure, it can be. Both physical and mental. I know if someone gave me a list of "NOs!" versus a lists of approved foods, I'd obsess over the NOs. Nobody wants to live like that.
Fad and very restrictive dieters are not happy people. One way or the other, a person is going to have to go back to a regular "healthy diet and exercise" way of life - so this quick-start restriction may produce fast results, but ultimately has to end. My question would be why not simply change to the "healthy diet and exercise" to begin with. While we all want that quick fix, the fact is that good things take time!
Tell Us
Have you gone on highly restrictive (900 calories a day or less) to jump start weight loss? Did you stay on it? How did you feel when on this diet? Was it a kind of "torture"?