This article talks about something that appears to be gaining a little bit of traction among various populations. I wouldn't necessary call it widespread but, it's getting more and more attention.
It's called CR: Calorie Restriction. But it's not just your run of the mill calorie restriction that is in normal diets. This is a more extreme calorie restriction to almost the point of starvation, sort of (more on that later).
The theory behind CR is that it has been shown to extend lives in various animals. Test on humans is just starting. The article goes on to say:
The mechanism by which calorie restriction slows aging in animals isn't yet understood. But it seems to depend on these basic mechanics: When you eat less than you need, your metabolism slows down. Your heart rate ebbs, your temperature drops. It's an evolutionary response meant to help us survive during famines (and it explains why some dieters have such difficulty losing weight).
I'll admit that I like that piece about how it may explain why dieters have difficulty losing weight when restricting calories too much. I think I preach that quite a bit that too low of a calorie restriction is not going to help with fat loss.
The author of this article is a former anorexic and ask this basic question and then moves on to try and get explanations of it throughout the rest of the article:
When I was being treated, my doctors invoked my low metabolism as a catchall for the physical damage I was doing. My low heart rate, amenorrhea (the loss of my period), and the goose bumps I got in 70-degree weather were all signs of illness. So, how can something that is a symptom of disease in one person be a marker of good health in another?
It also bears to mention that there are clear similarities between CR and anorexia:
It states, "Anorexia: It's All About Appearance. Calorie Restriction: It's All About Health." The next point is that anorexia is the result of low self-esteem ("Anorexia: I Am Bad"), whereas CR is about loving and respecting yourself: "The inner monologue of a CR practitioner is 'Calorie Restriction is worth the effort because it may prolong my life and health.' "
Okay, now this is where I get a little rant in. You're following the same type of lifestyle but one is about appearances and the other is about improving health? So I could severely reduces my calories in order to "look good" and just say "nope, I'm not anorexic, I'm just trying to be healthy like the other CR drones."
Another interesting observation in the article is the reaction your body goes through when the calorie restriction kicks in:
Now I understand what happened better: My starvation triggered the release of endorphins. In evolutionary terms, this is designed to give humans heightened coping powers in an emergency. In my case, it gave me a sense of well-being and made me feel sharp and energetic. This feeling became an addiction, so that I pursued it even as my tolerance level rose and the same amount of endorphins no longer produced the same effect, at which point I became quite depressed[emphasis added].
I've talked about this a number of times. Once your body becomes accustomed to it, it adapts, and you no longer get the same effect. You need more (or less in this case) of the stimulant in order to get the desire effect. It becomes a downward spiral.
Now onto the second part of the article that gets into examples of people that are following CR.
The first example he talks about the experiences of one person doing CR:
These include obsessiveness, particularly about food; he adopted behaviors that are also common among anorexics, such as watching food shows on TV and seasoning food with salt or spices to a degree that most people would find unpleasant. He also describes experiencing a kind of emotional "smoothness" or placidity, which at a certain point morphed into a kind of deadening.
The article continues with his experiences:
Dean also discusses a common side effect of CR in men: loss of libido. Unlike the obsessive behaviors, which he succeeded in cutting out, he found he couldn't boost his sex drive. Instead, by mental effort, he turned the drawback into a benefit: He came to enjoy having more time and attention for things other than sex. Dean connects his loss of libido to a decline in other instincts that he identifies as conventionally masculine: He feels less aggressive and selfish, and has less of an urge to use people for his own ends.
okay Dean, you keep telling yourself that....
onto the next person, Al.
My next interview was so upsetting that it is difficult to write about, and it shows that CR can, in certain cases, lead to full-blown anorexia. I called Al at home; his voice was quiet and somewhat difficult to hear. I asked how many calories a day he ate (1,950, he said) and how much he weighed.
"Ninety-two," he answered. I hoped I'd heard wrong. "How tall are you?" I asked. "Five-four," he said. "But I used to be 5-feet-11." He paused. "Osteoporosis." His spine had compressed a full 7 inches—or perhaps he was bent over. I was glad we were on the phone and I couldn't see him.
It continues:
Al used to be a professor at a university; now he is on permanent disability. He has had pneumonia five or six times. In the middle of one of these episodes, he collapsed from low blood sugar and went into a coma. Al acknowledged that his CR has turned into anorexia. Nonetheless, he refused to criticize the theory behind it, and he spoke sharply about the damage Americans do to themselves by eating too much. "I firmly believe in caloric restriction," he said, before adding quietly: "I believe I've gone too far."
Okay, first, I guess I'm overall confused about how low in calories these people are actually going. It says that Al was taking in 1,950 calories a day. That doesn't seem extremely low to me.
Regardless, let's summarize what this all comes down to. You severely restrict your calories with the theory that you'll live longer. The side effects are, if you're a woman, menstruation will be screwed up, for a guy you lose your sex drive, you shrink in height and end up looking like Quasimodo, might end up in a coma, have to quit your job because you become permanently disabled, your immune system becomes useless, and you become frigid if the temperature goes below 70 degrees.
Do I really have to state the obvious question here?
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