When you’re on an elemental diet, you’re getting all the nutrients your body needs in liquid or powder form.
It’s designed for people with severe digestive problems and is usually followed under the guidance of a qualified medical team.
Some people may try to reduce weight by following an elemental diet, despite the lack of evidence supporting its benefit for other than certain medical disorders.
This article explains an elemental diet and discusses its potential benefits, drawbacks, and weight-loss efficacy.
What does it mean to follow an ‘elemental diet’?
Pre-digested formulae that are nutritionally complete are part of an elemental diet. These formulae come in liquid or powdered form and are supposed to be mixed with water and swallowed.
This type of food has already been broken down into its basic building blocks—amino acids, polyunsaturated fats, and carbohydrates. Vitamins and minerals are also included in these foods.
For this reason, an elemental diet allows your digestive system to relax without compromising your nutritional intake.
Fat is difficult to digest; hence carbohydrates and protein make up most of the macronutrients in these recipes.
People with severe digestive difficulties are often advised on an elemental diet. It has been demonstrated to aid in the management of symptoms associated with the following conditions:
- Crohn’s disease is characterized by stomach pain, bloating, diarrhea, and vomiting.
- One of the most common causes of heartburn and trouble swallowing is a condition known as EoE (Eosinophilic Esophagitis).
- Inflammation and discomfort in the abdomen are symptoms of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), which causes bloating, gas, and stomach pain.
Healthcare providers can also prescribe elemental diets to those who have had digestive tract or bowel surgery and those who have difficulty meeting their nutrient demands, such as those with cancer or anorexia.
The elemental diet is not designed to aid in weight loss; however, some people may find it appealing.
An elemental diet is made up of simple-to-digest formulations that provide a full range of essential nutrients. When used to treat gastrointestinal and other medical conditions, it may also be utilized for weight loss.
Why and how the elemental diet works?
People on an elemental diet often don’t eat anything other than elemental formulations. The only other drinks allowed are water and simple tea.
They can be taken as a drink, mixed with water, or injected into the body via a feeding tube, intravenous therapy, or intravenous drip.
Slowly sipping elemental formulae is a common recommendation from doctors and other health care experts to avoid cramps and other gastrointestinal issues.
It’s possible to get a commercially prepared elemental formula that provides all the calories and nutrients you need. Over-the-counter and prescription options are available for these goods.
In virtually all cases, an elemental diet is overseen by a licensed dietitian and a doctor, who determines each patient’s appropriate formula and dosage based on their specific caloric and nutrient requirements.
Most people acquire all of their nutrition from elemental formulas. However other people only get a portion of their daily needs from formulae and the balance from solid foods. This type of diet is known as a “half- or semi-elemental diet.”
One group uses elemental diets indefinitely, such as those who had part of their digestive tract removed through surgery, and another group uses them only until their symptoms heal.
If you’re looking to lose weight, an elemental diet may not be the best option.
Elemental diet adherents often rely on elemental formulations to meet all of their dietary needs and avoid eating solid meals. They are usually under the care of a medical team and are required to adhere to a strict diet until their symptoms improve.
You may aid weight loss by using it. An elemental diet may help with weight loss; however, there is no scientific evidence to support this claim.
Weight loss of up to 30 percent has been observed when persons on the basic diet were treated for various diseases. However, this is not considered to be a positive or desired result of the diet.
An elemental diet is simple to follow because it relies solely on nutritionally complete formulations and does not necessitate the preparation of any meals.
Theoretically, you could eliminate all solid foods and still achieve your nutrient requirements by drinking elemental formula.
At most drugstores, you can buy single-serve packets of elemental formula that make it easy to keep track of your calorie consumption.
It is not advisable to follow an elemental diet without the guidance of a physician or other qualified healthcare professional.
Most elemental formulae are created for specific medicinal situations. As a result, they aren’t a good option for weight management.
On an elemental diet, it’s simple to meet your nutrient needs and regulate your caloric intake. You should consult a healthcare physician before using elemental formulations to aid in a weight loss plan.
Supplemental advantages of an element-based diet
For people with inflammatory disorders and digestive system issues, elemental diets are beneficial.
Elemental formulations have already broken down the macronutrients—protein, lipids, and carbohydrates—so your small intestine can easily absorb them. Your bowel, on the other hand, will be able to relax.
Elemental diets have been used for decades to treat Crohn’s disease, a condition that causes chronic inflammation of the digestive tract, stomach pain, malnutrition, and a host of other problems.
The esophageal lining is damaged in eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), which causes swallowing problems, pain, and heartburn.
In a study of 21 persons with EoE, 88 percent of patients were no longer experiencing symptoms after four weeks on an elemental diet. One can also achieve a considerable reduction in inflammation by following the diet.
Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), which is defined by gas and stomach pain, may also be treated with elemental diets.
Because the nutrients in an elemental diet are quickly absorbed, your intestinal bacteria may not have enough time to develop if you consume them regularly.
Lactulose breath tests returned to normal for 84% of SIBO patients who followed an elemental diet for 21 days. Elevated lactulose breath test results indicate SIBO.
Furthermore, the symptoms of more than half of individuals who underwent a routine breath test improved.
For those with chronic pancreatitis, an elemental diet may be able to alleviate some of the discomforts, but research is scarce.
It has been shown that one can use an elemental diet to treat a variety of digestive tract conditions, including Crohn’s disease (CD), EoE, and small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) (SIBO).
When it comes to losing weight, an elemental diet has some drawbacks.
For starters, it’s only safe to do this under the guidance of a medical professional and isn’t recommended for anyone without a specific medical issue.
In addition, a long-term elemental diet can be difficult to maintain because it relies only on elemental formulas and often does not include solid foods.
Since there aren’t many foods available on an elemental diet, it’s not uncommon for people to feel drained and cranky at first.
Additionally, elemental formulations can cost upwards of $10 per packet, prohibitively expensive for regular consumption, particularly those without access to a prescription or health insurance.
It’s possible that you’d have to spend more than $40 a day if you needed to consume four or more single-serve packets with 300 calories each.
Low-fat, high-carbohydrate formulae are standard in the elemental diet, and this might cause an increase in blood sugar levels. When blood sugar control is a problem, such as type-2 diabetes, an elemental diet may cause blood sugar dysregulation.
Finally, elemental formulae have a lower fat content than protein and carbohydrate-based formulas. It’s possible that if you’ve been on an elemental diet for a long time, you’re not getting enough fat.
Using an elemental diet for weight loss is a waste of time and money, and it can cause exhaustion and rises in blood sugar.
Is an elemental diet something you should consider?
Elemental diets have been shown effective in treating severe digestive disorders when monitored by an experienced doctor and dietician.
Speak to your healthcare professional about the elemental diet if you are suffering from one of the conditions that an elemental diet may help improve.
However, it is not suggested that an elemental diet be used for any other purpose to treat these particular health issues.
An elemental diet for weight loss is highly restricted, expensive, and unneeded for an otherwise healthy person. There is no scientific evidence to back up this diet’s claim to help people lose weight.
Instead, eat a varied, well-balanced diet that includes many healthy foods. Even without such harsh limits, it can be a valuable approach to reduce weight effectively.
While an elemental diet may benefit people with severe digestive problems, it’s probably highly restrictive for a healthy adult wanting to slim down.
Weighing less is a process that takes time.
Weight loss is a typical desire, whether it’s for a special event or just for better health.
Setting realistic goals may require understanding what a healthy rate of weight loss should be.
In this post, you’ll learn about the several elements that can affect how long it takes you to lose weight.
What causes weight loss?
When you consistently consume fewer calories than you expend each day, you lose weight.
As a result, you’ll gain weight if you consume more calories than you expend.
Calories from food and drink count toward your daily caloric intake goal.
That being stated, the amount of energy or calorie expenditure you expend daily is more complicated.
To calculate calorie expenditure, one must take the following these factors into account:
- The metabolic rate of a person at rest (RMR). Normal biological functions such as breathing and blood pumping require this amount of calories.
- Food’s thermal impact (TEF). Eating and digesting food consume a lot of calories.
- The thermogenic consequence of physical exertion (TEA). You burn these calories while exercising. Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) is another form of TEA that can account for the calories used when doing things like yard maintenance and fidgeting.
- Your weight is maintained if the number of calories you eat and the number of calories you expend are equal.
Increasing your physical activity or reducing your caloric intake is the only way to lose weight and achieve a negative calorie balance.
When you consistently consume fewer calories than you expend each day, you lose weight.
Things that affect weight loss
A variety of factors influences weight loss. Several of these are beyond your control.
Gender
Fat-to-muscle mass ratio has a big impact on weight loss.
As a result of their lower RMR, women’s fat-to-muscle ratio is 5–10% lower than men of the same height.
As a result, women typically burn 5% to 10% fewer calories than males when they are at rest. As a result, men who follow a diet with the same caloric intake as women do so lose weight faster.
For example, an 8-week trial including more than 2,000 individuals on an 800-calorie diet indicated that men lost 16 percent more weight than women, with a relative weight loss of 11.8 percent in men and 10.3 percent in women.
Even though males lost weight more quickly than women, the researchers in this study did not examine if there were variations in the ability of men and women to maintain their weight reduction.
Age
Fat mass increases, and muscular mass declines as one of the many physical changes associated with aging.
Along with other reasons, such as a decreased calorie need for your major organs, this alteration increases RMR.
Over 70-year-olds have RMRs anywhere from 20 to 25 percent lower than individuals in their prime.
Weight loss may become more difficult as we get older because of the decline in RMR.
Weight loss can be slowed or sped up depending on various factors, including your starting weight and body fat composition.
You need to be aware that the same percentage of weight loss (in pounds) can be achieved by people with varying body mass indexes (BMIs). In the end, losing weight is a complicated procedure.
An excellent resource is the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Body Weight Planner, which estimates your potential weight loss potential based on your starting weight and age and gender, and the number of calories you consume and expend each day.
People who weigh more than average should expect to lose two times the weight as those who weigh less (5/125 = 4 percent vs. 10/250 = 4 percent).
For example, someone weighing 300 pounds (136 kg), after cutting their daily calorie intake by 1,000 for two weeks, may lose 10 pounds (4.5 kg).
To lose weight, you must have a calorie deficit. The greater the calorie deficit, the more quickly you shed pounds.
For example, cutting 500 calories from your daily diet for eight weeks is more likely to reduce weight than cutting 200 calories from your daily diet.
However, be careful not to overdo it with your calorie deficit.
An unsustainable way of life also puts your health in danger due to nutrient deficiency. Furthermore, it may increase your likelihood of losing weight as lean muscle mass rather than fat.
Sleep
Sleep is often disregarded when it comes to weight loss, yet it is a critical component.
Chronic sleep deprivation can substantially impact weight reduction and the rate at which you lose weight.
Studies have shown that even one night of sleep deprivation increases your cravings for high-calorie, nutrient-poor meals like cookies and cakes, sugary beverages, and chips.
Study participants were randomly assigned to sleep for either 5.5 or 8.5 hours a night while on a calorie-restricted diet for one 2-week experiment.
Those who slept 5.5 hours a night shed 55% less body fat and 60% more lean body mass than those who slept 8.5 hours a night.
As a result, prolonged sleep deprivation has increased the risk of type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and even some types of cancer.
Furthermore, in addition to this, the following factors can influence your rate of weight loss:
Medications
Several drugs might cause weight gain or delay weight loss, such as antidepressants and various antipsychotics.
Conditions of health
There are various health issues that can impact weight loss and weight gain, such as depression and hypothyroidism, a condition in which the thyroid gland produces insufficient amounts of metabolism-regulating chemicals.
Genealogy and ancestry. It is well-known that persons who are overweight or obese have a genetic component that affects their ability to lose weight.
The constant fluctuation of one’s weight. Weight loss can become increasingly challenging as the RMR decreases owing to this pattern of losing and gaining weight.
One of the many elements that influence weight reduction is the age and gender of the person. Aside from this, you may also be influenced by medical conditions, your family history, and the usage of specific medications.
The most effective diet for weight loss is this one
When there are so many weight loss programs to choose from, it can be difficult to determine which one is the most effective.
If you’re looking for the most effective weight-loss strategy, you’ll need to try various methods.
Low-carb diets like keto can help you lose more weight in the short term, but long-term studies show no substantial difference.
The most important factor is your ability to stick to a healthy, low-calorie diet.
On the other hand, long-term calorie restriction is a challenge for many people and a major contributing factor in diets’ inability to achieve their goals.
A qualified dietician or dietitian’s assistant can help you achieve your weight loss goals if you are unable to do so on your own.
Diet and exercise, including both aerobic and resistance training, should be used for maximum fat loss and minimal or no muscle deterioration.
One can improve your weight loss and overall well-being by reducing the amount of highly processed foods you consume and increasing the amount of natural and unprocessed foods you eat.
Adhering to a diet for weight loss is a challenge for most people. Whatever your goals, pick a diet that works best for you based on your personal preferences and health.
The bottom line
All of your body’s essential nutrients can be found in liquid solutions that are easily absorbed.
In most cases, it is prescribed by a doctor to treat severe stomach disorders.
While reducing weight by following an elemental diet is possible, it is not recommended.
Whole-foods-based diets are superior for weight loss and goal attainment.
REFERENCES:
- https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/22053-elemental-diet
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/elemental-diet
- https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-an-elemental-diet-1944696
- https://drruscio.com/elemental-diet/
- https://draxe.com/nutrition/elemental-diet/
