Do the Ends Justify The Means

Im not saying that this is something I am going to do, I am just curious.

I have seen cases where doctors have advised extremely low calorie diets for morbidly obese people to get their weight loss going FAST.

Do the effects of extremely fast weight loss balance out/counteract the ill effects of staying morbidly obese for longer???

I guess what I am tryint to say is does losing weight fast and sorting out the mess later, seem better than slow and steady loss with prolonged obesity related issues?

The key part of your statement is that a medical professional has sorted through the various risk factors to determine which is worse.  If you think that you might be a candidate for this type of program, please go see your doctor first.

There may be extenuating circumstances that lead a doctor to prescribe a very-low calorie diet for a morbidly obese patient, but this is due to very special circumstances, and like smwhipple said, the Doc has weighed the pros on cons. For the average person, however, even the average morbidly obese person, short, rapid weight loss is NOT a healthy way to go. Not only are you likely to put on the pounds (and then some) once your 'diet' is over, it wreaks havoc with your body. Adequate quality fuel and exercise are the way to go for the healthiest you. 

I am not a doctor, and I can't claim to know what should be done in all cases of morbid obesity, but 10 months ago I was morbidly obese.  I had none of the usual associated illnesses like diabetes, high cholesterol, or elevated blood pressure, so was generally "healthy" in spite of my obesity. 

I made gradual changes in my lifestyle, and have successfully lost about 65 pounds, and consider myself halfway to goal.  I eat almost 1800 calories per day, and move an additional 45 minutes a day over what I used to do.  My "diet" won't change much once I am at goal, since I will burn less just moving around, but that is okay, because I find that I am really satisfied with my lifestyle now, and not really wanting to eat more or move less once I reach goal.

I am really glad that I didn't go the route of bariatric surgery or VLCD, because this gradual weight loss is teaching me a completely new lifestyle, and even though I will probably spend about 2 years getting to goal, I get lots of physical and mental happiness out of living this way. 

I also believe that it will be easier to maintain once I am at goal, and my skin has a fair chance of shrinking at more or less the same rate my fat is disappearing, even though I am not a spring chicken.

No matter how any one of us loses the weight, we all need to think about sustainable changes in order to keep the weight off.  Also, we need to let go of the hope of finding a "magic pill" or fast solution to a problem that took many years (in my case) to develop.

Yeah all of these make sense, I think the biggest problem with this approach is the chance of bouncing right back (or worse)

I am definitely not looking to do anything crazy as far as weight loss, (I have a baby to feed for goodness sake :D ) but just wondering, as I have seen a surge in youtube weight loss challenges and things of that sort, and was really wondering what other people thought.

I think there are some non-health related reasons why people try to lose weight fast. We see countless advertisements for diet pills and miracle diets that promise to let you lose 10 pounds in a week or whatever, and assume that it is normal.

This makes it easy to get impatient with a regular rate of weight loss (1% of body weight/week or so), causing many people to lose motivation if they don't see instant, drastic results. It is sad that shows like The Biggest Loser perpetuate these myths, but so it goes.

I am also inclined to believe that many doctors are woefully uninformed about weight loss and nutrition, but that is just my personal opinion.

Oh, and congrats on the little one!

Yeah I definitely think doctors aren't the most "UP" on nutrition... And thanks, Im really enjoying the new baby, i guess it gets slightly easier the second time around!