Bariatric surgery can produce dramatic weight-loss results if you have been unable to lose weight any other way, or if your weight presents an immediate health threat. However, if you are not ready to take that drastic step, but still need or want to lose weight quickly, extreme diet measures other than surgery can make it possible to achieve significant weight loss. However, most extreme diet strategies are not suitable for long-term dieting, and should only be undertaken with strict medical supervision.
Quick-Start Diet Programs
Quick-start diet programs featuring very low-calorie intakes allow obese individuals to begin losing weight quickly, according to MayoClinic.com. Quick-start programs also provide immediate results that can motivate you to maintain a weight-loss program. Quick-start programs often feature prepackaged meals and snacks that allow you to maintain strict control of the calories you are taking in.
Meal-Replacement Diets
Medically-supervised diets allow you to follow a very low-calorie meal plan that allows for rapid weight loss, claims MayoClinic.com. Such diets typically provide between 600 and 800 calories per day. Commercial meal-replacement diets may feature a liquid shake for one or two meals along with a diet of regular food. These shakes contain approximately 220 calories, according to the Merck Manuals Online Medical Library. However, MayoClinic.com warns that substituting solid food for an all-liquid diet is unsafe without proper medical supervision, and many commercial meal-replacement programs have shakes that have little nutritional value, and are in fact better suited to adding calories for underweight individuals than helping someone lose weight.
Medications
Prescription weight-loss medications are designed to help individuals with a body mass index, or BMI, of 30 or greater lose more weight than they can lose with exercise and diet alone. Individuals with a BMI over 27 who have serious health problems such as diabetes are also candidates for prescription weight-loss medications. One over-the-counter medication, Alli, is a reduced-strength version of the prescription-strength Xenical, containing 60 mg versus 120 mg of the active ingredient, according to MayoClinic.com. Individuals using prescription-strength Xenical typically lose 5 to 7 lbs. more than they would with diet and exercise alone; individuals using Alli can expect to lose half that much, add the Clinic. The FDA recalled all versions of another popular commercial diet supplement, Hydroxycut, in 2009, citing serious liver damage, reports CNN Health.
References
- Mayo Clinic: Why Do Doctors Recommend a Slow Rate Of Weight Loss? What's Wrong with Fast Weight Loss?
- "U.S. News and World Reports": Why the Mayo Clinic Diet Includes Quick Weight Loss
- Merck Manuals Online Medical Library: Diets
- CNN Health: Stop Using Hydroxycut Products, FDA Says
- Mayo Clinic: Obesity -- Treatment and Drugs
- University of California at Irvine Health Affairs Weight Management Program: Weight Loss Programs
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