You might think the faster you lose your extra weight, the closer you get to your goal and the more perfect, healthy, and energetic your life will be. But the truth is fast weight loss isn't always a good thing. When you lose weight like that, you also lose another kind. In this article we go over some facts about losing extra weight that you might be learning for the first time:
Fact one: depriving your body of nutrients
Following certain diets, or several diets that cut out or reduce your intake of nutrients like vitamins and minerals, can cause a big deficiency in your body. For example, diets that avoid dairy products can cause calcium deficiency, and low-carb diets reduce fiber and some other nutrients. Even if you want to lose weight, you have to give your body the nutrition it needs every day in proper amounts.
Fact two: slowing down your body's metabolism
The more you try to eat fewer calories daily to lose weight, the more likely the opposite will happen. Eating very few calories alerts your body that it's in danger because it’s not getting enough food normally. This forces your body into a starvation mode, storing food and saving energy for what's next. This can slow your metabolism. So if you want to lose weight without slowing your metabolism, eat about 500 calories less than your daily need, while balancing healthy eating with your daily workouts.
Fact three: losing your muscle mass
Losing excess weight fast can also make you lose muscle mass. Following a strict diet with very few calories makes your body break down muscles to get the energy it needs. This slows down your metabolism because muscles burn more calories than fat. So be careful, fast weight loss makes you lose muscle more than the fat you want to lose.
The fourth fact: losing your body's moisture
You might stay on a diet for two weeks without feeling fast weight loss. That's because your body still holds water weight. Over time, if your diet has little natural fiber and watery foods, your body loses water weight, which makes you lose moisture and slows your metabolism. You might also get headaches, low energy, constipation, and muscle cramps. So, when following any diet, you should drink plenty of water daily.
The fifth fact: increased hunger
Some diets with low and steady calorie intake can make you feel always hungry. This happens because your leptin hormone, which controls appetite, gets out of balance. Then your body stops sending signals that you’re full, so you eat all the time, which can cause weight gain over time.
The sixth fact: harm to your mental health
You might dream of being slim and healthy, making many plans to lose that extra weight. But wanting to lose weight quickly can cause problems like body disorders or loss of appetite. If you lose weight fast and then gain it back, your mental health might really suffer and you might develop negative feelings about your body and appearance. You should aim to lose weight moderately, reaching your goal without rushing. The most important thing is to keep your body healthy.
The seventh fact: change your lifestyle
If you think that losing weight fast and hitting your goal doesn’t need you to do anything more to keep it, you're really wrong. You have to change your lifestyle totally like regularly exercising and sticking to your healthy diet. If your diet has flaws, you should fix them with your nutritionist's help. This avoids your body missing needed nutrients and helps fix health issues caused by quick weight loss. If you don’t stick to this new way, you will definitely gain back your old weight.
Fact Eight: Your feeling of anxiety
When you lose a lot of weight fast, you’ll always worry about gaining it back. It feels like your body could put weight back on anytime. This is different if you lose weight slowly and properly. You’d accept losing the weight step by step and stay steady for a while before losing more. It would feel like part of your life routine without constant worry.
Fact Nine: Your feeling of weakness
Following a strict diet makes you feel very weak over time and unable to do any effort. When you eat very little of low-calorie food, your body stores food and stops burning those calories. This causes your body to slow down and feel weak, which can hurt your health as time passes. You need to keep a balance between what you eat and how many calories your body burns to give your body the daily energy it needs.
Fact Ten: Your hair falling out
Hair loss is a sure result of starving your body of many nutrients when following a strict diet. While you try to lose excess weight fast, your body wants lots of nutrients like vitamins and minerals from your food. Losing these harms your health and shows by your hair falling out or even by getting diseases like anemia.
Fact Eleven: High cortisol hormone
Since you're denying your body its daily calories, it's normal for your metabolism to slow down and become sluggish. This can cause you constant stress and anxiety. It also increases the release of cortisol, a hormone made when you're stressed or tired, which leads to storing more fat in the body. So, in this case, you'll likely struggle a lot with gaining back the extra weight.
