Pro-Ana Diets: Do These Diet Plans Really Work?

The Popularity of Pro-Ana Diets

Pro-anorexia is still a popular subculture on the Internet, even after it first flourished in the late 1990s. Though pro-anorexia websites discourage “wannarexics”–people who are trying to imitate anorexic behavior in order to lose weight–from following pro-ana diets, many girls and boys follow it anyway, restricting their calories to abnormally low amounts to lose weight.

Most pro-ana diets follow the restriction model, where calories are restricted to under 1,000 calories. Some anorexics use strange food combinations, may eat only one type or group or food, or insist on obtaining the calories through liquids in order to quicken weight loss. But are these diets–the pro-ana diets practiced on pro-anorexia websites–really effective? Do they work?

Effects

Though doctors recommend eating at least 1,200 calories per day for healthy, sustainable weight loss, eating under 1,000 calories can cause extreme weight loss, doubling the healthy amount doctors recommend every week, or more than two pounds.

Pro-ana diets cause extreme weight loss because the calorie deficit is greater, which forces the body to lose weight. But this isn’t the weight you want to lose–it sheds off water weight and muscle mass in the process. Exercising also speeds up the process, causing muscles to waste away. The increased muscle loss results in the anorexic look: a thin, toneless body that cannot perform most muscle-bearing tasks because the muscles are weakened.

Worse yet, this weight loss returns more quickly compared to other healthy diets because the restriction forces it into starvation mode, where the body clings to any fatty stores instead of burning them off. When you begin eating normally again, the body immediately converts it into fat.

Pro-ana diets do work when it comes to losing weight, but the results rarely last.

Dangers

Pro-ana diets are also mentally and physically dangerous. Some of the side effects it causes include:

• Fatigue. Calories equal energy, and when people are not able to obtain this energy, they feel less energetic. Fatigue also causes the person’s brain to work more slowly, making it difficult to think or complete tasks in an orderly fashion.
• A weakened immune system. Starvation also causes malnourishment, which prevents the body from receiving the nutrients and minerals it needs. As a result, the immune system weakens, making the body more susceptible to infectious diseases, such as pneumonia.
• A slower metabolism. Pro-ana diets also slow down the body’s metabolic process, caused when the body enters starvation mode. The metabolism won’t repair itself after normal eating is resumed either, and may become permanent.
• Heart problems. The heart is one of the biggest muscles in the human body–if a person diets for too long, it can eventually cause this muscle to waste away also. The decreased food intake also causes low levels of blood pressure. The increased stress on the body from the lack of food can cause the heart to beat abnormally or too slow, making you feel more fatigued.

Pro-Ana Diets: Are They Effective?

Pro-ana diets are popular, and evidence shows they do work–but the consequences heavily outweigh any of its benefits. Many women wish to lose weight quickly, but pro-anorexic dieting only offers temporary weight loss with damaging results. Pro-ana diets are effective–the risks simply aren’t worth it.