Low calorie diets are diets that recommend you to ingest no more than 1,200 calories per day. As you can see, the 500 calorie diet is at the lower end of the scale. The reason for going on a low calorie diet is to lose weight quickly.

In order to lose weight, you just need to use up more calories than you take in. However, a diet that is very low in calories can be very harmful. This is because your metabolic rate will be affected if your body needs energy but does not get enough of it. Thus, your body starts to eat away at your muscle mass.

This bodily reaction happens since muscle mass converts to energy as there isn't adequate amounts of it to be gained from an extremely low calorie diet. Evidently, the consequences are very damaging to our bodies.

If you are overweight and you decide to all of a sudden consume only 500 calories per day, it will be like nearly starving yourself. If your normal intake is more than 2,000 calories and you cut back to just 500 calories, your body will go into starvation mode. And your metabolism will slow down for energy conservation.

So as their bodies adjust to the fewer calories while on the 500 calorie diet, if they go back to their previous high calorie habits, they will experience a sudden gain in weight. In fact, they usually gain back more weight than what they previously weighed had they not gone on a low calorie diet.

Men and women have different calorie intake requirements. As an example, an average man requires 1,500 to 1,600 calories per day, while a woman just requires 1,200 to 1,300 calories. Aside from gender, other elements used to determine a person's ideal calorie intake are body type, activity level, and their height. This is the reason why a person needs to see a doctor prior to beginning a low calorie diet.

Obviously, low calorie diets such as the 500 calorie diet may be very harmful. However, if you still are intent in following the diet for quick weight loss, you should see a nutritionist to make sure it will not negatively affect your health.