To wonder whether my friend's diet is stupid and unhealthy or pure genius?

[mrscog]

I have a friend (who isn't really overweight but wanted to lose a few pounds) who has recently been doing the craziest diet I've ever heard of.

Basically she loves chocolate so much and didn't want to give it up so she has 3 bars of chocolate a day ( none greater than 300 calories) and then two tins of low calorie vegetable soup. So her day looks like this:

Breakfast - cup of tea and a Twirl

Lunch - Tin of soup and a Crunchie

Dinner - Tin of soup and a Double Decker

I am torn between revulsion and admiration. On one hand it's low in nutrition, but on the other it is a low calorie diet and I think it might have worked. She's so bloody super cheery as she tucks in to her 'treats'.

I'm considering trying it for a few weeks but then I remember that I have DC and should maybe be more careful with my health.

MN jury, what do you think? It's over to you!

I feel worried after I read that. Does she eat any protein?
And consuming a lot of sugar everyday can increase the risk of diabetes type 2, yes.

nuggett - I've given up foods with sugar added to it but I eat fruit (and wine!) and have lost weight easily. Other people may be a bit more strict about than me though!

Who cares really, she's a grown woman and she's not affecting anyone else?
She sounds rather ignorant on the subject of nutrition and health, but then again I guess the average person is just the same?

I know a very slim dentist, who eats 5, sometimes 6, snickers bars a day.

I feel fairly sure it would backfire on me though.

My DH (now deceased), used to eat a similar diet whilst working away, but with more chocolate, usually Dark, or Snickers. When he was home, fried breakfasts and pork chops etc were added, he ate a lot if veg, though.

It didn't surprise his doctors that despite often being underweight, he had a heart attack and a ulcer, he also developed Arthritis and Cancer.

The Wards that he was often on, contained younger patients, none overweight, but all with bad lifestyles.

I am in my 40's so remember men dying of heart attacks from 50+, now women are catching up, weight has little to do with heart health, it is diet.

You cannot fake heart health, or fat around/in the liver, exercising or keeping your weight down, whilst still eating a high fat/sugar diet won't make a difference.

If you are less than a stone off your ideal weight, then carrying that weight won't do you any harm, if your diet is good.

It is sad that people value appearance above health.

Women, in particular, need to be aware that bone health/ density is linked to diet and knowing people with Arthritis/Osteoporosis, eating what you "love" ie Chocolate, isn't worth the pain or lack of mobility you may be setting yourself up for, we'll before you are "old".

3 choc bars, two tins low cal soup. Roughly 750-800 kcals for 3 choc bars. 100 kcals for each tin of soup. Do you know how much proper food you can have on 1000kcal a day????!!!!!

Broccoli, asparagus, any green veg really. Prawns. Tuna. Popcorn (surprising low kcals) sweetcorn, egg whites (you can make massive chicken, sweetcorn and egg white omelettes for bugger all kcals), spinach, squid, crab, mussels (amazing and very low kcals)....seriously I can go on and on. And you can have virtually everything I just mentioned there in one day and have easily under 1000kcal. Pad it out with slim pasta at 14kcals a pack.

Easy. And whilst it's not the best balanced diet, a hell of a lot healthier.

Diets dont work eating a healthy diet does.

Couldnt she just do Slimming World or similar and counting a couple of choc fingers a day into her syns?

genius!!

Your friend is as foolish as they come. Sounds extremely unhealthy.

Disclaimer: I do not recommend this, I did it for 3 days and then vomited for the next 3 days.

There's something called the chocolate diet, you eat nothing but chocolate for several days at a time which is not as fun as this sounds. Of course, this is only normal chocolate so; dairy milk bars, chocolate buttons etc, nothing with caramel or biscuit or anything else. It can be milk or dark chocolate but not white. I desperately craved fruit and veg but I did lose weight. I frequently eating disorder forums in my teens which is where I found out about this 'diet'. I was anorexic for all of my teens and this was probably not my most unhealthy method of losing weight and it really wasn't fun at all.

Urgh that's disgusting and if feel vile if I ate that. That can't be good for you,

I tried slim pasta Sugar and found the texture really odd, is it something you genuinely like?

No, I don't like it...but if you persevere, you learn to not notice the weird texture any more. Also if you buy it as the Slim Rice, it feels like more of a risotto which is much nicer. The larger pasta shapes you notice the texture more because you have to bite them in half. If that makes sense :) I cook the pasta. Then in a frying pan, chuck it in with a tiny bit of olive oil, and dry fry it with some chicken sprinkle seasoning, salt and pepper. Then I stir in olives and a sundried tomato sauce. The whole thing is huge, like the size of a family pasta meal and about 110kcals. That's one finger of a twirl.

I think Birdsgotta fly is right on the money in pretty much every sense.

Slim pasta? Why torture yourself with such things.
Just eat lowcarb instead if you want to diet. Then you'll eat tasty, real food instead.

Birdsgotta 'weight has little to do with heart health, it is diet.'

I agree that diet has an enormous influence on health and that being overweight doesn't necessarily mean a person is unhealthy.

But would you not agree that activity level also influences heart health?

In other words a person who is at least moderately active would (all other things being equal) have a cardio vascular system which is in better shape than someone who leads a sedentary life?

I genuinely don't really like carbs, I'll have a slice of brown toast every now and again, but bread is one thing I cannot stand, so a low carb diet wouldn't do anything for me as I am not loosing any weight now!

That's a ridiculous diet, OP. (I've just seen this). Almost no protein, so she'll not feel full for long after meals, & lose muscle mass. Almost no fibre, so again, she'll not feel full after meals, she'll also probably get constipated. Chocolate is nutritionally valueless, & the tinned soup isn't likely to be very high in vitamins & minerals. Eating that much sugar on a regular basis will cause sugar highs & crashes, & she'll find it hard to go back to a more normal diet once (if) she's lost the weight, as sugar is quite habit-forming for some people, emotionally, especially if they are like your friend who says they can't manage without their fix of chocolate or sweets.

It sounds like a total disaster.

My husband's aunt did something similar many years ago- two or three Mars bars a day and nothing else. It kept her weight down, but gave her diabetes and she was virtually blind from the age of about 70. I think she'd tell your friend it's a fucking stupid idea and to step away from the Cadbury's!

"In other words a person who is at least moderately active would (all other things being equal) have a cardio vascular system which is in better shape than someone who leads a sedentary life?"

My DH's work was very manual, he could work 12 hour days and drop under weight. We were told by his consultants, that activity levels mean the difference between having a Heart Attack and then having damage and dying of the Heart Attack. But no amount of exercise would allow a person to get away with with a very high fat etc diet.

Bone and internal organ health is overlooked when these diets just to keep weight down, to much, especially by women.

A very high fat diet is not dangerous, as long as you avoid sugar. For example, inuits have traditionally lived on a high fat diet.

Birdsgotta thats very interesting!

I was sort of under the impression that being active could (albeit only to some extent) mitigate the effects of a not so healthy diet.

Thanks for clarifying for me:)

A girl I was at school with who had an eating disorder used to eat only chocolate bars - 2 or 3 a day. She was very thin with dreadful skin, unable to concentrate in lessons, her nails were yellow & peeling off. What your friend is doing is not healthy & not sustainable!

I think a lot of people eat like that. Without known ill effect.