Diet for Obese People

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an obese person is somebody with a Body Mass Index of 30 or higher. BMI is calculated by taking into consideration your weight, height and sex. By 2008, only one state in the U.S., Colorado, had less than 20 percent of obese adults. The dieting industry has taken advantage of this by introducing a large number of products and services aimed to those looking to lose weight. Obese people, however, need very specific diets and usually medical supervision to lose weight safely.

Medically-Supervised Diet

• People who are extremely obese and have a medical condition of some kind are better off following a medically-supervised diet. In the beginning and to get the weight loss process started, doctors may recommend a very low calorie diet, which is basically a diet of 800 calories or less per day. In most cases, the day's meals consist of a liquid shake that contains all needed vitamins, minerals and nutrients needed to stay in good health. Very low calorie diets contain no sugars and a very low percentage of carbohydrates, and can only be obtained with a prescription.

Commercial Diet

• Many of the diets in the market can help obese people, at least as a way to get them started or break off from a plateau. Low fat diets and low carbohydrate diets tend to work especially well, as fats and carbs usually contain a high number of calories that are neither nutritious nor filling. By reducing the amount of these items from the diet, the overall caloric intake is reduced and weight loss happens as a result.

  To calculate an approximate number of calories you should consume in an average day in order to maintain your weight, multiply your weight by 10. So if you weigh 140 lbs., you should be eating about 1,400 calories a day. Low calorie diets challenge that by making you eat less than you need to maintain your weight, thus forcing your body to eat away at its own fat as a fuel source. The DASH diet and Weight Watchers are two commercial diets that are based on low calorie approaches. If you want to come up with your own, low calorie diets are those that allow you to eat between 800 and 1,200 calories per day. It's no so much about what you eat, but how much it amounts to at the end of the day. Of course, low calorie foods like vegetables and lean proteins will fill you up more and allow you to eat larger portions before you meet your daily intake.