How Dangerous is Rapid Loss Weight?
As the saying goes, you can’t get fat in one bite. In the same way, it is certainly unrealistic to try to lose a lightning bolt of weight in a few days.
Most experts agree that losing 0.5 – 1 kilogram per week is the best way to maintain a healthy weight in the long run, and anything faster than that could lead to rebounding or even more weight.
However, for students who are eager to lose weight, dropping just one or two pounds per week is just too slow. As a result, many people go on long-term diets or try various weight loss products at the risk of ruining their bodies.
Although these unhealthy ways of losing weight may make you lose weight quickly in the short term, your body actually can’t keep up with the pace of your weight loss at all, which will inevitably lead to some obvious symptoms, such as anxiety, hair loss, insomnia and so on. In the long run, it can also seriously affect your physical and mental health.
5 Serious Consequences of Losing Weight Too Fast
1. Muscle Loss
Relying on dieting or taking diet pills (such as laxatives) may make weight drop dramatically in a short period of time, but what is lost is often not body fat, but a lot of water, and can even lead to muscle loss.
If you eat a low-calorie diet for a long period of time in order to lose weight, since you can’t get enough calories from food to maintain a normal metabolism, your body will gain energy by breaking down muscle.
In particular, girls’ muscle mass is naturally less than that of boys, and improper weight loss will accelerate the loss of muscle tissue, which will negatively affect metabolism and may lead to discomforts such as fatigue, lethargy and cold hands and feet.
2, Malnutrition and electrolyte imbalance
Low-calorie diets that lead to rapid weight loss are generally very nutritious, and following this diet for a long time will inevitably lead to malnutrition and electrolyte imbalances in the body.
Most of the body’s physiological functions require nutrients to function properly. For example, vitamin D regulates calcium and phosphate levels in the body, thereby maintaining healthy bones.
Any imbalance in the ratios of these nutrients can be potentially dangerous, especially since they are critical to cellular function and integrity. Electrolyte imbalances can lead to conditions such as epilepsy and cardiac arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats).
Most people who follow a ketogenic diet have experienced the “keto flu”. The main cause of keto flu is electrolyte imbalance in the body, which causes headaches, heart palpitations, fatigue, nausea and vomiting.
3. Metabolic slowdown
One thing that many people may not realize is that losing weight too quickly can actually slow down your metabolism. If you’ve been eating a low-calorie diet, your body will go into starvation mode and turn on its self-protection mechanisms because of the lack of calorie supply.
At this point, your metabolism slows down in order to conserve energy expenditure. At the same time, the body starts storing extra fat for emergencies. You can think of these as the body’s way of saving itself. And when you eat a little bit more, the body acts like a sponge to absorb as many calories as possible. This is why many people who try to lose weight through dieting usually end up with their weight bouncing back, even fatter than before.
4. Endocrine disorders
Losing a lot of weight in a short period of time often leads to endocrine disorders, such as excessive secretion of adrenaline or insufficient secretion of female hormones.
Symptoms of endocrine disorders include abnormal physiological periods or menopause, hair loss, acne and rough skin.
If you go on a diet simply to lose weight, but do not exercise properly, you may easily become a bloated “puffy” body, with a normal weight but high body fat.
A 2014 study published in Clinical Endocrinology, a journal of clinical endocrinology, found that people with a normal BMI (body mass index) but a high body fat percentage have a higher risk of developing metabolic syndrome, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and diabetes than those with a normal BMI and body fat percentage.
5. Mental illness
Losing weight requires a great deal of self-control, and maintaining a healthy weight should be a long-term goal. Many people go on diets in order to lose weight quickly, eating only very little food each day, but such a small amount of calories simply cannot meet the body’s basic needs.
Dieters often feel hungry and regret and chagrin once they can’t control their appetite and eat more food. Often, more extreme measures are taken to reduce calorie intake, such as vomiting or taking laxatives.
This negative emotion often repeats itself, with increasing stress and a vicious cycle of high expectations and disappointment. Over time, it can easily develop into depression and anxiety, or even binge eating or anorexia.
How to Lose Weight By Eating Healthy Without Dieting?
1. Eat less refined carbohydrates
Foods like white bread, steamed buns, cakes, and cookies contain a lot of refined carbohydrates, which contain almost no dietary fiber and have low nutritional value. Eating this type of food on a regular basis can easily cause a spike in blood sugar, which can lead to insulin resistance over time.
And insulin resistance is a trigger for a variety of health problems including diabetes, obesity and heart disease. Our daily diet should prioritize foods that contain complex carbohydrates, such as whole grain breads, quinoa, oats, potatoes, corn and beans.
These foods are rich in fiber and other nutrients, and they are digested slowly in the body, don’t cause blood sugar spikes, and can prolong the feeling of fullness.
2, Eat Enough Protein
Protein is an important nutrient for weight loss and improving your physical appearance. Even in the case of insufficient calorie intake, eating a lot of protein can maintain muscle mass.
Eating more protein can not only increase satiety and reduce appetite, but also change the level of several weight-regulating hormones, such as gallbladder contractile hormone and hunger hormone (Ghrelin). In addition, protein has a thermic effect of food (TEF) of 20-30%, which far exceeds that of fat (5%) and carbohydrates (5-15%).
TEF is the extra energy required by the body to digest food. The best sources of protein include: eggs, grass-fed beef, chicken breast, fish, seafood, beans, quinoa and seeds.
3, Eat more food rich in dietary fiber
Dietary fibers contain almost no calories and are not easily digested. They increase the volume of food and make it expand like a sponge in the stomach, which prolongs the feeling of fullness and also helps suppress appetite and control weight.
Eating more foods with dietary fiber also increases metabolism, promotes gut health, and keeps blood sugar stable. Most fruits, vegetables, beans and mixed grains are rich in fiber.
4, Light Fasting
Light fasting has been called the “age-old secret of weight loss”. Many studies have found that proper fasting can help improve insulin sensitivity, lower blood sugar, control weight, reduce inflammation in the body, fight disease and slow aging. In addition, light fasting will result in a reduction in your calorie intake throughout the day and a reduction in body fat while maintaining muscle mass.
There are many methods of light fasting, the most common of which include: 16/8 fasting (which is the type of fasting that most people find easy to accept and easy to stick to), 5:2 fasting, every other day fasting, and one meal a day.
Of course, nutrient-dense foods should be the main focus during non-fasting periods. In order to achieve better weight loss results, it is best to supplement the diet with a low-carb diet or ketogenic diet, which can drive the body into a state of ketosis, accelerating fat burning, and also help to reduce the feeling of hunger, which will be easier when fasting.
Summary
Many people believe that weight is the best indicator of body fat and health, so they resort to extreme ways to lose weight in order to reach their ideal weight quickly. These unhealthy weight loss methods are physically and psychologically harmful, and as a result, weight loss is not achieved, but rather incurred a disease is not worth it.
The best way is to change your diet and lifestyle, get enough sleep, exercise properly, and reduce stress and keep a normal mind. These will not only help you maintain a fit body in the long run, but will also give you more energy and look younger.