Yahoo Lifestyle The nose-tube diet
A US doctor has created a stir for formulating the KE Diet (Ketogenic Enteral Nutrition diet) - a diet that involves liquids being fed to the stomach through nose-tubes.
Dr Oliver Di Pietro created a video explaining the diet, showing how a nasogastric tube is inserted into the stomach via the nose, constantly depositing a liquid solution (a mix of protein, fat and water). Meanwhile over the 10 day period, dieters carry around with them a bag containing the liquid. Each bag contains 800 calories a day, and is said to work through ketosis - a process that burns fat, not muscle, through the lack of calories.
Dr Di Pietro has promised dieters that they will lose 20 pounds in 10 days, and it's proven to be a popular quick-option for brides determined to lose weight before their big day.
“Patients typically burn around two pounds of fat per day. In every 100,000 patients I treated in Europe, nearly every one lost 20lbs in 10 days. It’s absolutely painless – the stage of ketosis causes no pain. In fact, during the ketosis stage, you feel no hunger and have a suppressed appetite,” he says in the promotional video.
He lists the only real side effects as bad breath and constipation, while many nutritionists are much more cautious about the potential serious health risks the quick-fix diet could pose.
Check out some of these healthy recipes on Yahoo7 Lifestyle
Baylor University Nutritionist Suzy Weems says the long-term effects need to be considered when looking at the KE Diet.
“It seems very extreme because of its potential for infections and irritation. It seems to be illogical to do this for one fairy-tale day when most brides have plenty of time before their weddings to lose weight in a healthy way. The long-term solution to maintain a good weight is to eat right and exercise,” Weems said.
Along with kidney problems and lack of energy, other experts have pointed out the potentially fatal risk that misplacing the tube into the lungs instead of stomach could cause, as well as later problems with fertility that such an extreme diet could create.
Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox's strange diet
While this diet is certainly one of the most extreme, it's definitely not alone on the list of the weird and wacky. Victoria's Secret Angel Heidi Klum and Fergie have been both linked to the Apple Cider Vinegar diet, where drinking three teaspoons of apple cider vinegar before each meal is said to curb cravings. Then there's the cotton balls diet, where models and dancers have been known to eat cotton balls to feel full, but instead pose a huge risk to their own health, because cotton can't be digested.
There are also the followers of Breatharianism - people who believe water and food is unnecessary and that survival can be on spirituality and sunlight alone - as well as Freegans; those who adopt a vegan diet and at the same time, will only eat second-hand food they can find for free.
Our resident health blogger Libby Babet warns against crash diets, which cause your body to go into starvation mode and leads to further weight gain. The science of fat loss explains why extreme dieting doesn't work.
Read more healthy weight loss tips from Libby
The Biggest Loser's Michelle Bridges has five pre-wedding workout tips that will keep the kilos off for good. "I know the score," tells Michelle to Bride to Be magazine. "You want the kilos to come off quicker than your nightie on wedding night!" Here are my top five tips:
1. Sweat it out!
Sweat If you work-out and don't cough up a lung or two at the end, then, sister, you ain't going hard enough. Do 45 minutes of kick-arse training, six days a week.
2. Interval train
Incorporate interval training in your cardio sessions Elevate your heart rate for about 20 seconds, then pull back for 40. Use your local oval – just jog the long bits and sprint the short bits.
3. Spring out of bed
Train in the morning Your glycogen levels will be depleted so you're more likely to burn fat at this time.
4. Area focus
Organise your weight training train a lower body part for your first set and an upper body part for the second set. It will make your heart pump harder and so you'll burn more kilojoules.
5. Get a personal trainer
Pick an angry steely faced dude that clearly does not take 'no' for an answer and then tell him he gets a $50 bonus for every kilo he gets off you.
Do you think dieting has gone too far?
Related links:
BLOG: Better sleep = less fat
GALLERY: 5 ways to feel better naked
BLOG: Gentle 7 day cleanse for beginners
