To Fast or Not to Fast? Essay -- Weight Loss Dieting Diet Papers

To Fast or Not to Fast? Introduction "Rapid weight loss", "quick and easy weight loss", "preventative", "therapeutic" and "low cost"; with these guarantees, who would not want to attempt a seemingly unchallenging fasting diet!? According to a report on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) web site, as of 1995, tens of millions of Americans are dieting at any given time, in the process spending more than $33 billion annually on weight-reduction products. Are you playing the weight loss game? Here I will identify weight-loss programs advertised on the internet, discuss their claims to success, highlight specific fallacious claims, and report on findings of both the FDA and various medical studies. What’s on the Web? A collection of "easy" fasting or very low-calorie weight loss plans advertised on the world wide web includes the following: California Dreaming, The Wellness Center of Alaska’s "weight loss on-the-web", Medifast, Optifast, 4 Season Weight Control Center’s "medically supervised weight loss program", Liquid Fasting Diet, All-natural Aspen Spa diet program, and various methods compiled by Fasting Center International. As an example of programs guaranteeing a quick fix to weight problems, I will focus on both the Medifast and Fasting Center International (FCI) methods and claims concerning weight loss. Medifast According to the Shape Up America web site, a supporter of the Medifast product, it is a "physician-supervised very low-calorie diet program of fortified meal replacements providing 450-500 calories per day". (http://www.shapeup.org/sua/publications/hwhl/partax9c.html) The purpose of Medifast is to promote quick and healthy weight loss to its customers by creating a great defic... ... Dulloo, A. G. Human pattern of food intake and fuel-partitioning during weight recovery after starvation: a theory of autoregulation of body composition. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. 56: 25-40, 1997. Macdonald, I. A. and J. Webber. Feeding, fasting and starvation: factors affecting fuel utilization. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. 54: 267-274, 1995. Masoro, Edward J. McCay’s hypothesis: undernutrition and longevity. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. 54: 657-664, 1995. Schwartz, Michael W. and Randy J. Seeley. Neuroendocrine responses to starvation and weight loss. The New England Journal of Medicine. 336(25): 1802-1811, 1997. Schwartz, Michael W., Dallman, Mary F., and Stephen C. Woods. Hypothalamic response to starvation: implications for the study of wasting disorders. American Journal of Physiology. 269: R949-57, 1995.