Ever wonder how victoria's secret models get pre-show thin? Two YouTubers tried one VS Angel's diet and found it devilishly unappealing (also, unhealthy and unsafe). Candace Lowry and Michelle Khare followed the hellish Angel diet for four days and found it amounted to anorexia of starvation proportions. Dietitians say no one should eat this way, yet Dr. Nowzaradan uses such a weight-loss plan with bariatric surgery patients on "My 600-lb Life." Who's right, the angel, the dietitian or the doc?
Victoria's Secret model's anorexia in a shaker
Starved for weight-loss?
You'll have to if you want to do it the VS model way. YouTube channel hosts Candace Lowry and Michelle Khare concluded not even halfway into the Angel diet that it was a slow death by starvation. They aped Adriana Lima's nine-day liquid diet of protein shakes. Lima doesn't use a protein powder which is at least palatable. Her gag-worthy power drink consists of powdered eggs and a gallon of water. Two days before the show, Lima cuts the water and day-of she eats nothing. A dietician at Shape magazine railed against this deadly eating disorder mentality. No one disagrees that obesity like that of 1,100-pound Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty, the "World's Heaviest Woman" is dangerous but so is anorexia.
Why Dr. Now uses controversial liquid diet
So if you're already thin and dying to be thinner, you just might. But if you're morbidly obese, like 605-lb Brittani Fulfer, 650-lb Nikki Webster or 850-lb Steven Assanti, you're dying in a different way. These "My 600-lb Life" patients battle the eating disorder of overindulgence.
They must lose a lot of weight fast to stave off Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, lymphedema and other obesity-related problems. Before and after bariatric surgery, Dr. Now puts patients on a liquid diet which would not be recommended for slightly overweight people looking to lose.
VS Angel's dangerous diet saves morbidly obese
So fasting is okay for obese folks but not normal-sized people? Yes and no. Reality TV's Dr. Nowzaradan only uses the liquid diet because the situation is so extreme. "My 600-lb Life" patients are in desperate situations requiring desperate, possibly dangerous methods. But the danger from obesity outweighs, literally, the danger from fasting. And further, the devil's in the details of the Angel diet. Even Dr. Now's strictest diet calls for 800 calories a day, far less than Adriana Lima's. His is also temporary, to prepare patients for gastric bypass surgery and help their stomachs adjust to the gastric sleeve. Nine days is too long for a liquid diet for those who don't need it. And if models repeat this diet before every show or runway event, they are further endangering their bodies and robbing themselves of vital nutrients.
