Surely a 450 calories a day meal replacement diet is a really bad idea?

[ItalianJob]

Saw my friend last night, who has lost 1st 9 on a meal replacement diet in 3.5 weeks. Turns out that this meal replacement diet involves 3 shakes at 150 calories per shake! Is it me, or does this sort of diet sound positively dangerous?

Isn't that like just eating a mars bar a day? It might be good to kickstart weightloss and break bad habits - but it would just replace them with a bounce back weight gain, a really bad attitude to food and bad breath.

Are you really supposed to replace all 3 meals.

It's bad - her metabolism will go into starvation mode and slow down. When she eats properly again, it'll all go back on. I wouldn't have the energy to get out of bed on 450 calories!

Yes threebob, you're meant AFAIK to replace all 3 meals. My friend eats the odd meal when out socially though, so that's a small mercy.

saggar - apparently she felt horrendous the first week, but has felt OK since then. She's a single childless professional who lives with her parents, so once she's done her daily work, she doesn't have to do a great deal iyswim.

Meat and steamed veg and some exercise would be more use to her. Her muscles will waste away, her skin will not renew and she may be thin, but she'll look ancient, haggard and unhealthy.

She won't have lost 1st9lb of fat in 3.5wks, she will have lost fluid & muscle tissue. When she starts eating normally again, her body will pile back on the pounds & their will be less energy burning muscle tissue than there was before.
Crash dieting, which is what she is doing, is not good for you. It actually makes you put on more weight!! It also doesn't help you to re-educate your eating habits & it quickly becomes very boring. Really bad news all round as far as I'm concerned. It annoys me that companies actually make shed loads of profit from these awful diet products.
Sorry, bit of a rant there!!