[Therapeutic effect of a low-energy diet in patients with above-normal body weight]

The efforts of the dietitians have lately been directed to elaboration of super low energy diets for the treatment of obese patients. A low energy variant of diet No 8 of Pevzner of 2512.2 kJ (600 kcal) daily has been tried in a group of 66 patients with obesity, degree II and III. The duration of that king of dietary treatment lasted 10-14 days under clinical conditions. A good tolerance to the diet was established in all patients as well as absence of adverse effects. Improvement and abatement of the subjective complaints, associated with the basic disease, were observed. The patients, prior to that dietary variant had been treated with traditional diet No 8 Pevzner with a total course of treatment at the clinic of 20 days. The total mean body reduction attained was 8 kg. The result obtained is relatively better than that with the traditional diet 8 and comes closer to the results attained with the energy-free zero diet. That provided grounds to recommend the low energy variant studied as a more adequate in effectiveness and physiology as compared with the therapeutic starvation, applied so far in the treatment of patients with body mass above the norm.