One of the strange weight loss plans that has recently caught my attention is a plan called the 2468 diet. I decided to write this quick post about it just so you’ll know what’s it all about.
So, what is the 2468 diet and how does it work?
Basically, this is a very low calorie diet in which you rotate the amount of calories that you eat:
- On day 1 you eat 200 calories
- On day 2 you eat 400 calories
- On day 3 you get 600 calories
- On day 4 you consume 800 calories
- Then, you start over from day 1 and do this cycle over and over again until you’ve (hopefully) lost all the weight you want
As 800 calories is a lot lower than the recommended consumption for an adult, this diet is very strict and depriving. The basic concept is to just lower your calories to force your body to lose weight. Does this really work?
I believe that the 2468 diet is not healthy and will not work. This is a low calorie diets which is something that I generally don’t support and it can even be unhealthy. Basically, it’s a starvation diet and it will not work with your body to lose weight, it will work against your body which is always a mistake.
When I say that this diet is like working against your body I am referring to the severe damage you will inflict on your metabolism. When you reduce your calorie consumption too drastically, your body goes into starvation mode: it believes you may actually be starving, that there’s no food around and it lowers the metabolism to conserve your energy. This is a survival mechanism which has evolved in us over the course of our biological development.
A lower metabolism means that you will burn calories at a much slower rate. This means that you will find it much harder to lose weight in the future or even maintain your current weight.
After all, you can’t eat 200 to 800 calories a day for long. It’s way too low. One day, you will resume eating a normal amount. What will happen then? What will happen is that your slow metabolism will not be able to cope with the increased amount of calories (the normal amount) and you will gain weight. A lot of it.
In my mind, this is a dangerous diet. It’s unhealthy, it’s not good for long term weight loss, it can lower your energy and make you feel tired, and it can also just make you sick.
This is just a gimmick plan without any use at all. Do not try the 2468 diet plan out.