An overweight bride-to-be who wanted to lose an extreme amount of weight before her wedding died after spending 11 weeks on a crash diet. Samantha Clowe, 34, collapsed from heart failure after eating just 530 calories a day for nearly three months.

A Sept. 10 article in the British paper Daily Mail provided the following details:

An inquest in Leeds was inconclusive about whether the controversial LighterLife diet - which restricts people to 530 calories a day for a maximum of 12 weeks - played a part in her death.

But this is the second reported case in three years of a woman who has died from similar heart failure after losing significant amounts of weight on the LighterLife plan.

Home Office pathologist Dr Alfredo Walker said a post-mortem examination failed to establish a cause of death, adding: "But it may be related to her low calorie diet and weight loss."

West Yorkshire Coroner David Hinchliff said it was "highly likely" Miss Clowe died from cardiac arrhythmia - a potentially fatal condition involving an irregular heart beat.

Professor John Garrow, a retired obesity and nutrition expert, told the Daily Mail that in individuals who follow a highly restrictive diet, the heart is in danger of being "reduced to a stage at which it can no longer adequately perform what it is there for, namely pumping the blood and you get these disorders of rhythm."

Labels: dieting, calorie_restriction

Posted By: Aspen/CRC