Hello Heart Sisters!
Thinking of getting swimsuit-ready through a quickie lemonade fast, cabbage soup diet or Master Cleanse?
Cardiologist Isadore Rosenfeld, MD, a professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, and author of the forthcoming 'Doctor of the Heart: A Life in Medicine', opposes crash diets (less than 1,200 calories a day) and detox plans like the Master Cleanse.
He says these very low-calorie regimens are based on the false theory that the body needs help eliminating waste.
Research suggests rapid weight loss can slow your metabolism, leading to future weight gain, and deprive your body of essential nutrients. What’s more, crash diets can weaken your immune system and increase your risk of dehydration, heart palpitations, and cardiac stress.
“A crash diet once won’t hurt your heart,” Dr. Rosenfeld says. “But crash dieting repeatedly increases the risk of heart attacks.”
Long-term calorie-cutting can eventually lead to heart muscle loss. “Yo-yo dieting can also damage your blood vessels. All that shrinking and growing causes microscopic tears that create a setup for atherosclerosis and other types of heart disease.
More info at: http://diet.health.com/2009/06/22/how-crash-diets-harm-your-health-and-hear t/?xid=whn090629&utm_source=health&utm_medium=email&utm_content=body-lede&u tm_campaign=whn090629-html&PromKey=XET
XOXOXO
http://www.myheartsisters.org
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Beware: crash diets can harm your heart
- By Kennarina
- Posted June 29, 2009 at 11:13 am · 9 replies
- In Advice for other women with heart disease
- Shared with the public
Explore topics in this discussion:
Exercise Dehydration Heart disease Varicose veins Surgery Diabetes Atherosclerosis Anorexia Heart attack Dieting Bulimia Stress
9 replies
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- By sternum
- Posted July 2, 2009 at 12:46 pm
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Thank you for publishing you findings. There is more to losing weight than counting calories and starving one's self. These days we have so much info to help and even Heart Smart items in the supermarkets.
Even though it sounds like a cliche, breakfast is still the most important meal of the day. It sets up your metabolism for the day and uses to advantage the nutrients it gets. However, when breakfast is skipped, the body gets the signal that it must hang on to what it has in case starvation times might be ahead.
(not medical jargon, but I hope you get the drift)
Losing weight takes time, effort and healthy eating along with activity. I know it works. I've lost 40 pounds. And the one month I wasn't eating breakfast regularly I put on 5 pounds. I now have to get back on track.
Once again thanks for this posting. I had to learn it the hard way.
Take care and be blessed --- Gloria ---
- By Kennarina
- Posted July 2, 2009 at 10:14 am
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Oh, I hear ya Chris! Bread is my all-time favourite. I used to bake my own bread every Saturday (trying to perfect my focaccia recipe) but it was just too damaging for my waistline!
XOXOXO
http://www.myheartsisters.org
- By corby
- Posted July 2, 2009 at 8:35 am
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Kennarina, Thanks for the advice. I will keep trying to get that 15 pounds off as usual - more exercise and less carbs may be the ticket. I'm just so addicted to pasta and bread. It's my Italian blood!! thanks Chris
- By Kennarina
- Posted July 1, 2009 at 5:18 pm
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PS Here's another interesting article:
"I survived the Master Cleanse - and then gained all the weight back!"
http://diet.health.com/2009/06/22/i-survived-the-master-cleanse-then-gained -all-the-weight-back/?xid=hts090701&utm_source=health&utm_medium=email&utm_ content=feature-link-2&utm_campaign=hts090701-html&PromKey=XET
XOXOXO
http://www.myheartsisters.org
- By Kennarina
- Posted July 1, 2009 at 5:15 pm
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Hi Chris - just re-read Johnie's excellent advice re exercise. There is no secret to this: the energy you put OUT has to be equal to or more than the food you take IN. Very simple, yet oh so difficult.
I think it's hard for any cardiac nurse, doctor or fortune teller to pinpoint exactly what caused your heart disease. It could very well be yo-yo dieting IF it's gone on for many years. She's right - heart disease is 20-30 years in the making, but most of my friends and I seem to have been losing the same 15 pounds over and over an over for decades! I guess that's yo-yo dieting for you.
Depending on how 'overweight' those overweight women with no cardiac problems are, you can bet money that they have now or soon will have serious issues with diabetes, joint problems, blood pressure, varicose veins, kidney damage, and a host of other weight-related health concerns.
XOXOXO
http://www.myheartsisters.org
- By corby
- Posted July 1, 2009 at 12:15 pm
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Well, I think I am also someone who has always worried about my weight. 2 years before my heart attack - LAD - with by-pass. I lost 20 lbs. was thinner than I had been for years. I had gone on weight watchers with my daughter. She didn't lose a pound and I was watching all those points eliminated most oils and ate low fat foods - some processed. I believe it is a good diet and I am not blaming the diet for my heart attack. I do think that the constant dieting may have damaged my heart. When I mentioned this to the cadiac nurse she said that has nothing to do with dieting and heart disease is a long term issue. All I know is I see other women who are overweight who have no cardiac problems. I have sinced gained most of that weight back. After 6 years I am 15lbs heavier than when I had my surgery. I try to lose it but now I'm afraid of the yo-yo dieting syndrom. -even before reading the article. I guess I will just eat more veggies and exercise more. Thanks for listening Chris
- By Johnie
- Posted July 1, 2009 at 11:54 am
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Kardia, you know -- I've always dieted since my teens also. And, like you, I had to in order to stay in the 130-140 range. Now, since my SCA two years ago I have gained a lot (due to inactivity and medications I no longer take and being afraid to restrict my diet). However, for the first time in my life I have a regular exercise program and have made an amazing discovery -- I can just eat in moderation WITH DAILY EXERCISE -- and lose weight! It's a wonder to me. I can actually eat three meals plus snacks and just keep on that treadmill and eliptical machine and the scale will go down. I think the exercise is not just "burning calories" (because I really only burn about 500 calories in an hour of exercise) -- it's also helping my metabolism. Now, a "regular diet" for me is following the South Beach Diet (recommended to me by the cardio rehab nurse because it is made by a cardio doc and is very sensible). I can't eat anything I want, but I don't have to starve myself. If you are physically unable to exercise, that's a heartbreaker. . .
Take care, Johnie
- By carmelbabe
- Posted June 30, 2009 at 11:04 am
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Whenever I hear about drastic measures to lose weight, my mind goes to Karen Carpenter. Her years of bulimia and anorexia finally wore her heart out. In addition, a good friend of mine took phen phen to lose weight several years ago. While she was watching her son graduate from high school, she had a heart attack. Luckily a friend that was with her, recognized the symptoms, because she didn't believe it was anything to worry about. She had a mild heart attack, but it proved to me that any diet pill prescribed or not, is very dangerous to your body.
Right now I am back on low carb. It appears to be the only way I can get my blood sugar under control, and lose weight. I am however, adding a little more in the beginning because I work out, and I have to have some additional carbs in the morning so I don't crash. My calorie count doesn't really change.
- By kardia
- Posted June 30, 2009 at 10:01 am
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Kannarina,
Oh my, you know I have avoided reading this type of an article my entire life, I am 54. I have been fighting the fat, mostly successully, for most of it, but it has been a war since I was 8 years old. I never got over 30 pounds over weight until I was in my 50s (lost it) and am staying now where I struggled to stay all my life around the 130s-140s. But, has not been without its crash diets, pills, skipped meals and grooling hunger...my body wanted to be bigger but I refused. And, I wonder why I have heart disease. Interesting is that I told my story to my cardiologists, even the part where once I took Phenphen years ago, but they really felt it was not the cause. We'll never know.
I still am counting calories and maintaining at 1200-1500, a day. More than that does add weight, my metabolism was shot probably a long time ago. Now I have to stay this course.
It actually started with my mother wanting me to model as a kid and fed me carrot sticks and put me on diets...they didn't know much about these things in those days.
Anywho, sorry this is long, just wanted to get that out.
Thank you so much for the article...it unravels yet another layer of possible reasons for my heart disease.
kardia
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