When Fast Weight Loss Becomes Unhealthy
You’ve
made the decision to lose weight as quickly as possible. You have your diet in place and you expect to
follow it religiously. At this point,
you may be wondering how much weight you can lose in a given week and whether
fast weight loss can be dangerous for your body.
There
are a number of things that can affect your weight loss. For instance, family history, or genetics,
can play a significant role. Also, your
weight loss may depend upon how much exercise you’re engaging in, as well as
how much stress you are under. Your
metabolism, or how quickly you burn calories, can also have a major effect.
Theoretically, you could lose as much as 20 pounds a week. However, much of that weight could be water
weight. That means that, once you go off
your diet, you are likely to gain much of that weight back. Also, unless you engage in strength training,
you will be losing muscle as well as fat, since about ¼ of the body’s weight
consists of muscle. It is interesting
to note that, at most, you can probably lose four pounds of fat in a given
week.
Nature
has a way of protecting the body against excessive weight loss. If, for instance, your calorie count suddenly
drops, your body will compensate for the fact by reducing your metabolic
rate. As a result, you’ll need fewer
calories to maintain your weight. This
explains why some people lose weight up to a point and then cannot lose any
additional weight, no matter how hard they try.
If you lose weight quickly, there’s a
good chance that your health will be jeopardized. For instance, fast weight loss has been
linked to the appearance of gall stones.
Also, you may experience loose skin as your weight goes into free
fall. Perhaps most distressing of all,
if you experience rapid weight loss, there’s a good chance that you will gain
the weight back again. This is because
it is very difficult to maintain a healthy diet regimen. You may find yourself falling back into your
bad eating habits after a period of deprivation.
Fast
weight loss also places you at greater risk for an eating disorder. You may be tempted to starve yourself,
leading to anorexia. Or, because your
food cravings are so great, you may want to binge and purge, leading to a case
of bulimia. This is why it is so
critically important to lose weight under a physician’s care. Otherwise, you could be doing more harm to
your body than good.
Although the body has the capability of shedding a great deal of weight
over a period of time, most medical experts agree that one should not expect to
lose more than one or two pounds a week in order to remain healthy. This can be disappointing to a dieter,
especially one that needs to lose about 50 pounds. However, doctors believe that the go-slow
approach is best for long-term weight loss.
Otherwise, you could end up with a number of health problems you weren’t
anticipating.
There
are a number of approaches you can use to lose weight. For instance, you might follow the Atkins
plan, the Zone, or the diabetic diet.
You might try Sugar Busters or the Carb Addict’s prescription for losing
weight. However, it is vitally important
that you accompany your diet plan with an effective exercise routine. One of the best exercises you can do, in
fact, is the easiest—walking. It has
been said that you can lose as many as two pounds a week, just by walking
alone.
As
has been demonstrated here, rapid weight loss should be approached with
caution. It is far better to lose a few
pounds each week and maintain that weight loss over the long term. In essence, all good things take time, and
that is particularly true when it comes to weight loss. Perhaps the best advice is to be
patient. Follow a reasonable diet, get
plenty of exercise, and drink a good amount of water. That way, you should be able to slowly lose
weight—without jeopardizing your health in the process.
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