Calorie Restriction: Will It Slow Down The Aging Process?
In flies, worms and rats, it seemed to. But what about us humans?
With calorie restriction, you eat 20% to 25% less than you need to maintain your normal weight. So someone who needs 1800 calories a day would eat about 1440.
But you still have to make sure you get enough vitamins and nutrients. To do that, you’ll probably eat more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Low in calories, high in nutrients.
With flies, worms and rats, calorie restriction extended their lives. But these creatures have extremely short life spans.
No one knows if it’ll work in humans over a long period of time.
Short trials have shown some positive changes in humans like lower weight, cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, body fat, and even heart rate. There’s no evidence that will ensure a longer life… maybe just a healthier one.
But you may also develop some health problems with calorie restriction: anemia, dizziness, reduced bone density and muscle mass, memory loss, even depression.
It sounds to me as though you may live longer, you just won’t like it.
Again, no one knows whether there would be long-term negative effects from restricting calories for someone at a normal weight.
I have no medical or scientific basis for my opinion. But I think calorie restriction is nonsense. If you drop too much weight, you put yourself at real risk if you get sick. Your immune system can’t fight back as well, among other things.
Even without getting sick, you may not get all the nutrients you need. If you overtax your body with exercise or stress, it seems to me that you won’t have any nutritional reserve to help you.
This sounds like a case of the medical and scientific communities trying to be a little too clever. Shoot for a normal weight, relax, and enjoy life.
But if you’re interested in calorie restriction, you should see your doctor before trying it.
Technorati Tags: calorie restriction, diet, dieting, lose weight, weight loss
May 17th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Not for me. Sounds like a crash diet.
May 17th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
You could eat a vegetarian diet and get the same results.
May 17th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
How healthy is anemia and dizziness and all the rest? I’d rather eat a little more, live a little less, and enjoy life.
May 17th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
The worms can keep calorie restriction. That’s too intense for a lifetime.
May 17th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Jackie’s right that this could easily become a crash diet which might be why you can get dizziness and all that stuff. Do people lose their hair like you talked about with some other drastic diets?
May 17th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
I guess I’m the only one who wants them to keep studying this to see if it really works. It would be like being on a lifelong diet but if it’s not too extreme and you live a longer, healthier life, I’d want to give it a shot.
May 17th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
I think this sounds too much like a crash diet, too. It might work for a while but if people do it long enough I don’t see how it could continue working without problems.
May 17th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
Everyone’s always looking the fountain of youth, but no one ever finds it.
May 30th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
“I have no medical or scientific basis for my opinion” Unfortunately that sums “opinion” up, doesn’t it.
Done properly, Hypocaloric regimens aren’t ‘crash’diets in that the objective is not to lose weight [quickly] but to starve opportunistic disease and aging mechanisms into what amounts to ’switching’ off.
We’re not talking starvation OR malnutrition. Again, properly done, one consumes ~75% of one’s ‘recommended’ intake, but of incredibly nutrient dense food- no fluffy fillers, little in the way of grain products or dairy, no refined foods- all the rules we’ve been told for the last decade or two and yet insist on dedicating so much time to trying to get around.
And no, variations of veg don’t fulfill the criteria, first in that they are generally heavy on ‘lower nutrient dense’ grains and pulse to substitute for higher quality animal protein and secondly because they are not only not intended to hypo-caloric, they can end up fairly ‘hyper’ as a result of trying to squeeze in the necessry nutrients.
The late Dr Roy Walford was a leader in the research in this field and had some very interesting results from his research- if you actually care, then google him and learn more about what hypo-calorism actually means.
Luck and light to you all