How long does it take for a diet to affect a person?

[peace-love-couture]

How long does it normally take for a low calorie diet to have an affect on a person?

Affect as in them feeling sluggish, tired, getting headaches & hair loss? Can it happen within a week or two?

Keep in mind, this low calorie diet is accompanied by regular exercise everyday.

Updates

+1 y

I meant around 800 calories, no more than 950

it's whatever. positives outweigh the negatives but everyone is different

[emmabee11]

Give it 3 months at least to start seeing some real improvement, you won't see much really quickly as it takes time and effort to improve your health. People who say it takes like one day or a week it's not true, I've been trying to lose weight myself and only those who have tried know that it takes 3 or 4 months for actual improvement to finally be seen with persistent diet and excersise, although don't make it a diet make it your lifestyle if you would like to keep your health once you are done because you can't just improve your health then stop because then it will go back to how you are now. AS for the detox don't try that as not eating for days isn't healthy at all, see the so called "health" companies have made people believe that getting healthy is that easy and it's like "wow! I detoxed I'm so so healthy" unfortunatly no, to have natural lasting healthy it is not soemthing you do temporary, if you want to keep yourself healthy every day you need to make it your life style. Something that people do is try too much too quickly and they often burn out too fast, I reccomend not making such dramatic changes in just one week, make one change in your diet, write everything down of what you need to change about your eating and your health then only change one of those once per week or once every 2 weeks if you feel you need more time to adjust to this change, don't try too much, trust me it doesn't work, I often try to change my diet and try to start working out 3 times a week in the samw week, really doesn't work. Doing detox and not eating and all that it might make you look thinner but on the side your organs and such suffered and if you end up stopping your health won't hold up for as long as it would if you ate. Eat all the raw stuff like vegies, fruit, whole wheat and definitely some meat for protine, I find eating rivitas with cottage cheese in the morning keeps me feeling satisfied until my lunch at 1pm, don't eat all these "health bars" and don't ever ever buy all these protine powders and shakes, it is not real food, just keep it simple and stick to the natural raw stuff, don't try to complicate it.

[LonelyandInTheDark]

first of all, I think it depends for everybody, at what weight you are starting on, and how many calories you're consuming each day...but for me usually after 3-4 wks?

second of all, if you are doing it right, you're not supposed to feel sluggish, tired, or lose your hair while on a good diet, rather it's supposed to make you feel more energized and leave you healthier...

third of all, don't go below a 900 calorie diet, just saying from experience...

[martyfellow]

None of these effects will happen if you have a healthylow-calorie diet. Even an unhealthy diet won't normally have these effecs most of the time!

You wil lose weight and that will show in a couple of weeks, but you shouldn't lose your hair or get headaches from it. Maybe too much coffee? Too little protein? Even then you don't normally lose your hair, your body has reserves for quite a long while.

[martyfellow]

I've never heard of anyone losing their hair because of a diet, only their beer bellies. Even people starving keep their hair until they are nearly dead.

[1biglow]

I'm not on a diet but if I don't get enough calories I notice within a few hours. I start making more mental mistakes at work and my attitude becomes more careless about things and I'll feel tired and crabby. I need a lot of calories daily to keep my mind sharp and to perform to the best of my ability.

[MrOracle]

You'll notice the symptoms in a day or two, and may not regain a feeling of "normality" for a week or two, assuming you ever do. If you aren't eating enough to be healthy, you may not stabilize at all.

[handsomejackk]

I'm doing a sort of detox diet at the moment, which involves fasting for entire days. For me it took about 2 days to start getting headaches, back and neck pain, even my gums and eyeballs hurt.

[NayaAbouzaid]

Hey I would love to embark on a detox because I feel like my system really needs it right ( to remove all those toxins ) , but I have no idea what to do , how to do it . Can you give me some info on what exactly you're doing ?

[kheserthorpe]

There is no evidence that 'detox' diets do anything drinking plenty of water wouldn't.

[peace-love-couture]

I think detox diets just make people crap

lol

no point in that nonsense

[WeaponZero]

It depends on the workouts and where your calories are coming from. Some of those symptomatic Ms (not hair loss of course) can kick in almost immediately.

[dalila]

I think it's 2 or 3 days, as our body can handle no food or water for that long, but it could be less... it doesn't take long

[kheserthorpe]

Less then a day for some of those symptoms.

[kheserthorpe]

I've gone lower then that before (re update). Can I ask what the macro mix is? I.e carbs vs other things? When moving ON to a low calorie diet a lot of people feel sluggish as their body shifts from using carbs to using fat. But that should actually go away in a couple days.

You cannot do HIIT without carbs though. You may need to more consciously take some carbs before exercise.

You may also want to consider tracking your body temp on waking. Also, caffeine.

[peace-love-couture]

I don't do HIIT though & I just try to stay within the same diet everyday. Slimfast meal shake with a rice cake that has a little peanut butter on top for breakfast. Almonds and/or snack bar for lunch(slim fast 100 cal snack bar) & salad or lean cuisine TV dinner(under 300 cals) for dinner

[kheserthorpe]

I suspect you'd feel slightly better with more real food, same calories.

You're eating enough carbs to stay out of ketosis. I don't know for sure but you might feel better IN ketosis.

[peace-love-couture]

They go into my mouth & I chew or swallow, so that is real food

[kheserthorpe]

If it didn't grow or walk around, it's a food like substance ;)

I don't think shakes etc are evil, but they're not as nutritionally compiles as fresh food.

Also I suspect glycemic index on those slim fast shakes sucks. If you're going low calorie you want REALLY slow digesting stuff.

[peace-love-couture]

Well, cows walk around and the milk used to make the slimfast drink comes from the cow.

My almonds came from a tree(right? lol) My salad came from some beaner picking the veggies from the ground they grew on.

and the point of drinking the shakes is to keep the calorie intake below 300 & it does cause they're only 160 calories, plus the 50 cal rice cake and what, not even 50 calories of peanut butter(which comes from peanuts which come from mother nature)