First World Problems
Weight loss is challenging at the best of times. We’re surrounded and bombarded constantly by high fat, high sugar processed foods. It’s a constant challenge to make good choices- even when there are obvious ones out there.
Doctors and fitness instructors alike agree that maintaining a reasonable weight is essential to optimal health and wellness. Being overweight increases your likelihood of developing type II diabetes, certain cancers, and bone and joint problems.
At any given time, it seems like most of the people around us are dieting in one way or another, or doing a cleanse, or participating in a juice fast.
These can sometimes result in small, short-term losses, but because they’re so radical the results can be difficult to maintain.
But what happens when you lose weight too fast?
Instant gratification aside, dropping pounds too quickly comes with its own host of physical issues. Keep in mind, that even controlled, slow weight loss is a form of starvation. Let’s look at that again: all weight loss is a form of starvation.
Obviously, this can cause problems. When you lose more than one or two pounds a week it can dangerously disrupt the way that your body processes food and maintains metabolism. Abrupt weight loss can result in extreme weight gain or even death. This is not a task to undergo lightly.
When Fast Weight Loss Is Necessary
In some cases, rapid weight loss is medically necessary and in these life-threatening cases should be monitored by a qualified professional. Care and attention to detail keeps these special cases within carefully calculated risk levels.
Metabolism As A Systemic Process
Rapid, starvation-style weight loss is an incredibly dangerous and foolish program to undertake. Hunger issues aside, mass weight loss can be accompanied by malnutrition and loss of useful, functional tissues instead of fat.
The body literally starts to digest itself, beginning with the most expensive to maintain tissues- skeletal muscles. This is highly counterproductive to the desired end goal because people with a higher percentage of lean muscle burn more calories at rest.
This is what metabolism is– your energetic maintenance fees. Rapids weight loss slows this rate to a trickle as the body perceives starvation. Survival based fail safes get put into effect to preserve the greater system.
It’s All In Your Head
The mental issues that accompany starvation are alarming. Unnatural obsession with food is bad enough. Mood swings, lethargy, and fatigue all complicate overly accelerated weight loss.
Where achieving a healthy weight would ordinarily be rife with positive emotions and a sense of achievement this is not the case when starvation is used as a meal plan.
The mental state of such a person is anything but healthy- which is why so many starvation or fad diets fail so badly.
Your Body, Your Self
Due to loss of key nutrients, minerals, and hydration, a body suffering from starvation manifests a host of problems. Simple digestion becomes disrupted.
Instead of a smoothly functioning system, you have one troubled with nausea, constipation, or diarrhea- all which negatively impact your overall sense of health and wellbeing.
Hard deposits of cholesterol can accumulate with painful swiftness in your gall bladder during this process. Agony aside, gallstones can cause serious nausea and eventually require surgical removal.
As fats are processed and digested the liver can become overtaxed as well, lending to the general sensation of malaise.
The bad news doesn’t just stop with your digestive system. Loss of sodium, potassium and essential hydration make cramping an unpleasant reality.
Anyone who’s been woken up in the night with a so-called ‘Charlie horse’ can attest to this! Malnutrition of this sort extends yet further, too.
With loss of nutrition, your outer appearance changes (and not for the better). Hair loss and a dull complexion often result from excessively swift weight loss.
Abruptly losing a large amount of weight will often leave you with excess loose skin. While not being particularly life threatening, it can leave a huge psychological impact.
Chafing aside, the feeling of ‘not fitting into one’s skin’ can be difficult to endure- and is a common side effect of gastric bypass surgery.
Liberating Toxins
Many toxins in our modern world (like pesticides) are fat-soluble and can be stored nominally safely in body fat. With rapid fat burn, these undesirable substances are freed into the bloodstream.
Being abruptly bombarded with a caustic cocktail of chemicals is not just inconvenient, it can be downright dangerous until those toxins are flushed out of your system.
Sound Mind, Sound Body
It would be easier to just start out with the perfect body weight, but few of us are lucky enough to have that effortlessly or have the time to properly exercise to offset our eating habits.
It’s never too late to change your destiny, though- and where there’s life, there’s hope. Taking your time during a weight loss process is the best thing you can do to permanently heal your system.
This is your body, your health, your life- you are worth careful consideration and patience. By taking it slowly, you’re more likely to get it right and in a way that you can maintain.
Get help, do your homework, experiment, and don’t give up. The long-term effort and slow, steady changes will feed into a manifestation of you loaded with energy and glowing with health.
Sources:
https://www.sharecare.com/health/impact-of-losing-weight/what-risks-losing-weight-quickly
http://www.livestrong.com/article/379184-side-effects-of-losing-weight-too-fast/
http://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/bariatric-surgery/basics/risks/prc-20019138
Leave a Reply