Low-calorie High-vitamin Diet

Calorie restriction diets limit the calories you can consume daily to a far greater degree than recommended for normal nutrition by medical authorities. The purported benefits include longer life and a lower risk of disease. The biggest associated risk is malnutrition due to insufficient intake of vitamins and other nutrients. The leading proponents of low-calorie diets aim to address this issue through vitamin supplementation and optimal nutrition.

History

In 1934, Clive McCay and Mary Cromwell discovered that putting rats on low calorie diets nearly doubled their life spans. In the eighties, Roy Walford and Richard Weindruch conducted experiments that led to the generalized agreement that many life forms, from algae to dogs, live longer on low calorie diets. While the diet's effect on humans remains uncertain, many people have adopted it in the meantime, often cutting calories with little regard for the nutrients their bodies require. In response, Walford developed the CRON---Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition---diet, aiming to supply the recommended daily amounts of various nutrients while keeping calories up to 20 percent lower than conventionally recommended.

Benefits

Low-calorie diets appear to bring numerous benefits. The diet rapidly lowers levels of cholesterol, insulin and fasting glucose. In an examination of people who had followed low calorie diets for six years, researchers found that they much lower body mass indexes, lower triglyceride and blood pressure levels and less arterial hardening than people on a standard American diet, with a consequently diminished risk of cancer and heart disease. Supplementation might be able to further enhance these healthy effects.

Warning

Losing weight via calorie restriction, even with high vitamin intake, will cause you to lose significantly more bone and muscle mass than someone who cuts weight with exercise. This could leave you more likely to fracture your hips and lower spine. It could also lead to malnutrition, with side effects ranging from receding gums to hormonal imbalances and organ failure.

Prevention/Solution

In "Beyond The 120 Year Diet: How to Double Your Vital Years", Walford suggests eating a low-calorie diet relatively high in fish, fruit, and leafy greens, and supplementing it with antioxidants, flavonoids, phytoestrogens, Selenium, B-Vitamins, Carnitine, and fatty acids. These measures will certainly improve things, but may still fall short of meeting your nutritional needs, as the nutrients won't be in optimally bioavailable organic form. A doctor's supervision is necessary.

Considerations

Humans burn calories to power the muscles, organs and brain. A calorie shortage affect energy levels and make any serious exercise, be it cardiovascular or strength training, detrimental---once the diet has successfully rid your body of most of its fat, the only viable fuel source will be either muscle or blood glucose and glycogen, substances in which the CRON diet falls short. Granted, the quality of food Walford recommends is excellent, and superior nutrients may fuel the body for somewhat longer, but they're still unlikely to supply enough energy for someone living an active life.

Also, maintaining such an extensive supplementary regimen could be prohibitively expensive.