Losing more than a pound or two a week is not healthy. Rapid weight loss is bad for two main reasons.
Lose weight fast and you will lose muscle
First, if you lose weight quickly, you lose muscle along with fat. This is bad when it comes to losing weight.
Muscle burns more calories than fat. The more muscle you have, the more calories you’ll burn and this applies when you’re not doing anything strenuous. Therefore, losing muscle is not a good idea.
Lose weight fast and slow down your metabolism
Second, if you lose weight too quickly, your body will slow down its metabolism.
When we skip meals or go on a strict diet, our body is programmed to think that it is starving and slows down our metabolism to conserve energy.
What is preserved are our fat reserves; our weight loss comes from water and muscle.
A graphic example
For example, studies show that by dieting, the weight we lose is about 75 percent fat and 25 percent muscle.
Also, a relatively high percentage of this weight loss is likely to be water.
Keep in mind that water makes up about 70 percent of the average person’s total body weight, with muscle tissue containing about 75 percent water and body fat containing about 50 percent water.
Therefore, losing weight quickly is very difficult as we are.
simply losing water in the term of classification.
The dangers of strict diets
Crash dieting refers to a method where we lose weight simply by restricting the number of calories consumed.
This method of rapid weight loss is considered unhealthy and it is rare for people who practice it to keep the weight off.
They cannot adjust to these new unhealthy eating habits and then gain the weight back.
Your goal should be long-term weight loss.
Consider this, if you only lost one pound a week, that would be 52 pounds a year and that’s a lot of weight.
If you lose weight slowly, you will stay healthy and also have a good chance of keeping it off.
The maximum amount of body fat a healthy person can lose is 1 to 2 pounds per week.
The human body is simply not designed to lose weight quickly and this is a healthy amount of weight loss to aim for.
Reasons why losing weight fast is difficult and unhealthy
Our bodies are programmed to help us survive in times of
starvation.
Our basic bodily reactions have been established since man first walked the earth and in those days food was not just a phone call or a short walk away.
In times past, hunger was the greatest threat to man’s survival, and your body is programmed to protect you.
This is why you will never lose excessive amounts of fat in a short period of time; your body is programmed to conserve fat.
If you drastically reduce your calorie intake, you slow down your metabolism to conserve calories, as we discussed earlier.
This is one of the reasons why we find rapid weight loss difficult as your body actively fights to keep the weight off, it is a survival reflex.
side effects of losing weight fast
In addition, losing weight quickly has serious side effects that can harm us.
loose skin appearance
If you lose weight too quickly, your skin won’t have time to shrink to the new dimensions of your body.
The only effective treatment for this is to repair the lost skin with surgery.
gallstones
Studies have shown that people who lose weight rapidly have a higher risk of developing gallstones.
Lack of energy and illness.
Depending on the diet, there are a number of other complications including lack of energy and nausea for those who cut out carbs and a general feeling of ill health and lack of energy as you deprive your body of food.
lose weight slowly
Don’t be fooled by quick weight loss, your goal is not possible for long term weight loss.
You’ll lose weight, keep it off, and feel healthy and happy.