The Truth about the Anorexic Diet

Anorexia nervosa is a prevalent disorder where people avoid eating to achieve fast weight loss. It is a serious condition for which patients need to be professionally treated. While some see it as a disorder, others view it as a good way to shed unwanted pounds. The potential to lose weight at a fast rate by limiting calories is why the anorexic diet was born. The rest of this article will help you learn more about the anorexic diet.

The Anorexic Diet Explained

The premise is very simple. In order to lose weight, you need to eat fewer calories daily. Although the recommended minimum calorie requirement is 1200 for women and 1500 for men, the anorexic diet aims to keep calories under 800 a day. This can easily be done by sticking to the “5 bites” rule, which is basically taking five bites of foods for breakfast, lunch and supper respectively. The type of food you eat is not specified. However, advocates suggest eating foods with high nutritional value.

Is the Anorexic Diet Safe?

Medically, the anorexic diet poses more hazards than benefits. The minimum calories recommended by experts go towards organ function alone. This means every system in your body requires a certain amount of calories to function normally every day. Should you deprive your body of its nutrients, it is highly likely that you will experience a range of illnesses and symptoms of deficiency. This diet should not be considered at all by pregnant women and diabetics.

Is the Anorexic Diet Effective?

This diet might be gaining popularity in some circles, but it is by far the hardest meal plan to adopt. Firstly, it requires a lot of discipline to ignore hunger pangs. Although you are allowed to take bites of filling, protein-rich foods or slow-releasing carbohydrates, the low calorie count is guaranteed to leave you feeling hungrier than ever.

Another reason why many people cannot go through with this diet is because of symptoms like fatigue, dizziness and constipation. The average person needs a certain amount of nutrients daily. Without them, organs might begin shutting down, leading to mental and physical problems.

Food Options for Anorexic Diet

The choice of food is entirely up to dieters. The best way to receive as many nutrients as you can on the anorexic diet is to eat amounts of protein, healthy fats, fiber and carbohydrates. You could have steel-cut oats with plain yoghurt for breakfast, steak with leafy vegetables for lunch and whole wheat bread with an avocado spread for supper. This is an example of how to balance all food groups to ensure your body gets what it needs.

Important thing to Consider about the Anorexic Diet

There is a fine line between following an anorexic diet and being anorexic. Patients are diagnosed as anorexic because they are motivated to go to extreme lengths to lose weight in order to improve self-image and esteem. This is not very different from a person willing to pursue unhealthy avenues to improve appearance and confidence. If you’ve been on the anorexic diet for some time, please speak to your doctor and rule out the possibility of suffering from the disorder as well.

The anorexic diet does not have many fans in the medical world. In fact, dieters are highly discouraged from following it for many reasons. Not only does it advocate unsustainable, extreme weight loss measures, it can also lead to negative effects on your system. Consult your doctor immediately if you’re considering this meal plan.