Bride-to-be dies after losing 3st on her crash diet - eating just 530 calories a day

**Honey** · September 8th, 2009, 09:24 PM

An obese woman died after losing more than three stone on a crash diet to get in shape for her wedding.
Samantha Clowe, 34, suffered heart failure 11 weeks into the low-calorie LighterLife diet.
Her mother Barbara said Miss Clowe, who weighed 17st 6lb when she started the diet, did not want to be a 'fat bride'.
She also wanted to gain the 'respect at work' of her colleagues at steel company Corus.

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Samantha Clowe with fiancee Andrew Smith. Her mother said: 'She said she wanted respect at work and didn't want to be a fat bride.'
Miss Clowe, who was 5ft 6in tall, was otherwise 'fit and well' and stuck to the diet, an inquest heard.
She had seen her GP to be given the all clear before starting the diet, which is available only to obese people.

For 11 weeks she ate only soups, snack bars and shakes provided by LighterLife, which has been used by 150,000 men and women in 12 years.
She saw her doctor for two monthly check-ups and attended weekly group counselling meetings.

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Samantha's brother said 'There's too much pressure on women these days to look like skinny celebs'

Her fiancé Andrew Smith found her collapsed at their home in Leeds on June 28 last year. West Yorkshire Coroner David Hinchliff said it was 'highly likely' Miss Clowe died from cardiac arrhythmia - where the heart beats abnormally.
But he could not say whether the LighterLife diet - which restricts people to 530 calories a day for a maximum of 12 weeks - played a part. The recommended intake for women is 2,000 calories.
Home Office pathologist Dr Alfredo Walker said a postmortem examination failed to establish a cause of death, but added: 'It may be related to her low-calorie diet and weight loss.'
Recording a narrative verdict, Mr Hinchliff said Miss Clowe's death was unascertained.
In a statement to the inquest, her mother said: 'She said she wanted respect at work and didn't want to be a fat bride.'
Her brother Daniel said: 'There's too much pressure on women these days to look like skinny celebs. They see slim people in magazines and feel under pressure to lose weight.
'But women shouldn't diet. I would say to anyone who feels unhappy like Samantha did to lose weight sensibly - don't diet.'
A spokesman for LighterLife said although Miss Clowe's BMI had reduced from 37 to 32, she was 'still clinically obese' and 'her health may have already been compromised'.
He added: 'We were very sad to hear the news about Samantha. The coroner said Samantha was clinically obese which increased the risk of cardiac death.
'It had been suggested that there was a possible link to the diet but the coroner said it was very difficult to make such a connection.'
Professor John Garrow, a retired obesity and nutrition expert, described Miss Clowe's rate of weight loss as 'too fast' and said that the effect of following such a very lowcalorie plan was that the heart 'wasted away'.

Website: Samantha Clowe had been following the Lighterlife low-calorie diet regime when she died

As a short- term measure for helping people kick-start weight loss, I'm a big fan of commercial diets, even crash diets such as LighterLife.
Crash diets have a bad reputation, but the main thing they do is show people that being overweight is about eating too much.
Indeed, often it's only going on a low-calorie diet that finally convinces people this is what the problem is.
The key, of course, is that you're on a low-calorie diet just for the short term - and it's better to stick to one of the commercial diet plans, as these are usually quite carefully researched to provide the right nutritional needs.
That's why the tragic death of Samantha Clowe seems unlikely to be the fault
of the diet itself, but was down to some other problem. And as the coroner indicated, this was probably to do with her heart.
When you starve yourself, as you do on a crash diet, your heart gets used to functioning on very little fuel. The problem is if you suddenly eat more - the classic dieter's lapse of willpower.
This puts your heart under pressure and while in most healthy people this is not a worry, in some it triggers an irregular heart rhythm and sudden death.
It's like an electrical problem in your heart: it simply switches off, as if it were a lightbulb blowing.
This inherent weakness is often there since birth - it tends to run in families - but it's only when the heart is put under pressure, such as from drastic dieting or sudden physical exertion, that it emerges. And by then it's too late.
With some diet programmes you have to get your GP to sign a form confirming you're otherwise healthy; that your blood pressure is okay, and so on.
But I think it's also a good idea for any person contemplating a crash diet first to have an electrocardiogram to check their heart's electrical activity.
I'm afraid it really is a case of better to be safe than sorry.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211954/Bride-dies-losing-3st-crash-diet--eating-just-530-calories-day-11-weeks.html#ixzz0QZXHcUPh

**MoodyJenny86** · September 8th, 2009, 11:58 PM

Okay...I've been on a 'crash diet'/ED cycle for 8 years and this article terrifies me!

I've been as low as 110 lbs and then ballooned up to 195 lbs...my weight has been all over and every time I lost it it was basically either by starving myself, killing myself with exercise/diet pills, so basically I've NEVER lost weight in a healthy way...and I'm on a diet now again (go figure

although it's supposed to be more of a 'lifestyle' change as I'm cutting out all fattening foods, fast food, pop, candy, yada yada) and since I have no health insurance yet I can't go get myself checked up for a physical...I'd really like to know if I've done any long-term damage to myself with all of these years of abusing my body.

And with my luck I'm sure I have...this really is quite a wake up call for me!

**celeb_2006** · September 9th, 2009, 01:06 AM

Celebs should read and heed when they think of getting oscars for gaining/losing weight for roles.

**Charmed Hour** · September 9th, 2009, 02:49 PM

Isn't this the company where the one founder is quite obese herself?

**Laurent** · September 9th, 2009, 03:58 PM

Her brother Daniel said: 'There's too much pressure on women these days to look like skinny celebs. They see slim people in magazines and feel under pressure to lose weight.

She was over 240 pounds - that's a bit more than just a tad plump. She could've just eaten a bit less and moved more and the weight would've come off slowly, but surely. She wanted a quick fix, and I'm sorry, but I don't think that's the result of "skinny celebs". She was just impatient and didn't want to slog through it the hard way. I can appreciate and understand that, but call it what it is, don't use some convenient excuse like celebrity culture.